Pushing
by Bryon Nightshade
Summary: With Robotropolis reeling, Sonic, Sally, and the Freedom Fighters move to follow up on Robotnik before he can recover. But the risks and costs become all too apparent—especially for Tails.
1. Planning

Author's note: while this is, technically, a continuation of one of my previous stories, you do not need to have read that to understand this. I hope.

Disclaimer: the characters and situations described herein belong, not to the author, but to one or more of the following: SEGA, Archie Comics, and Dic. This story is copyrighted Sam Durbin, a.k.a. Bryon Nightshade, and is bound by all applicable laws and statutes.

Pushing

            It was all Uncle Chuck could do to avoid laughing at the Swatbots standing stupidly around him.

            Just yesterday, Sally had led a masterfully designed raid that had ended with the total crash of the Robotropolis mainframe. This did incredible damage to Robotnik's operations, effectively shutting down Robotropolis until the mainframe could be restored. Sally estimated this would take a week.

            She was determined to inflict as much damage as possible during that week. To do that, she needed Uncle Chuck's help. He was happy to oblige, and could do so with more safety than ever.

            With the crash of the mainframe, the assignments of the worker bot forces were lost and scrambled. Thus, there wasn't a bot in the city that knew for sure where Uncle Chuck was supposed to be.

            This made his job ridiculously easy.

            So long as he stayed away from Robotnik and Snively, he was pretty much free to roam around Robotropolis, and he was taking full advantage of this.

            Buildings he never could have plausibly approached before were open to him now. He'd had to dump his recorded information twice already, saving the visual record in his hideout computer to make room for more footage. After all, his memory was normal, but he only had so much room for direct video feeds.

            The microchip factory Sally was gunning for was busy. Before the strike, it had been down for a while as it underwent renovations. The renovations were almost completed, and Robotnik wanted the factory back up and running as quickly as possible. Efficiency in production was not a factor compared to simply making it run. Naturally, all sorts of problems were cropping up.

            If I didn't know better, Uncle Chuck thought, I'd say Robotnik's almost trying to build a second, backup mainframe. Well, why not? It would keep this from ever happening again.

            That alone was reason to hit the factory. Sadly, Uncle Chuck could see a great deal of worker bots in the factory. That meant that, unlike the more automated Swatbot factories, the Freedom Fighters couldn't simply demolish this lab—they were determined not to kill anyone who might be de-Roboticised later. That was one of the reasons Sally had given this mission a low probability of success—they had to find a new way to shut things down.

            It certainly wasn't because of the tight security, Uncle Chuck thought. Once again, he was barely able to keep the smile off of his metal face.

            It was going to be a busy, but satisfying, week.

            "Are you sure you're okay, Tails?"

            Tails looked at his friend. "Of course, Sonic, it's not like I chopped my arm off or something."

            "Tails, I'm sorry, I… I wish it hadn't happened. I was supposed to train you, an' I get you hurt instead."

            Tails frowned. "Sonic, you're acting like Sally."

            "What, somethin' wrong with Sally?" said Sonic, bristling.

            "I only need one," Tails answered.

            "One what?"

            Tails very nearly answered 'mother', but that didn't make sense, now did it? "Sally."

            "Why'd I think I was a hot shot an' could tell you how to use knives when I'm clueless? Tails, I'm…"

            "Sorry, I know. Sonic, take it easy!"

            Sonic finally sat down. Tails shook his head. All of this had come about because of Sally and Sonic deciding to make Tails a real Freedom Fighter. To do that, they'd started putting him through a rigorous set of training missions, with Sally planning them and Sonic doing them with Tails.

            Tails had gone on the raid that had wrecked the Robotropolis mainframe—his first mission as a real Freedom Fighter. Granted, the terror of the mission had given him nightmares, but he was ready for more. So Sonic had continued the training today.

            Around noon, Sonic had been teaching Tails all the vulnerable points of Swatbots—the joints, the eye, the seam between front and rear armor, the neck, and so on.

            First he'd taught Tails how to hurt a Swatbot just with paws. "Honestly, Sal is better at it than me, but she's busy." It had been easy and fun. Then Sonic told Tails to do the same thing at a run.

            "You see, Tails, you won't have time to just stroll on up an' say, "Hey, Swathead, wanna fight?" and then hit him. You've gotta BE hittin' him at warp seven, before he can turn and take a shot. We're getting back to that changin' the rules thing again. We play by their rules, we lose. We change the rules, we've got a fighting chance. Our best shot is to give them nada."

            That had been harder, but still fun. Sonic had made him practice a lot, and told him that they'd practice even more at it. "It's gotta be cool before you have to use it. I puked maybe a dozen times practicin' the Sonic Tornado—that wasn't cool. But now I can use it whenever, and boy does it do the job!"

            Things had gotten more real—and thus decidedly less fun—when Sonic had handed Tails a knife and told him to try that. "Face it, Tails. We don't have Bunnie's strength or Sal's aim. But there's nothin' wrong with makin' up for that somehow. You did great with a knife last time, so we thought you might be good with 'em." He stopped, as if he was trying to convince himself of the truth of his words. "If you don't wanna use it, fine, I'll juice on to rope."

            But Tails had wanted to learn the knife, because he never wanted to be in a place where he couldn't hurt Swatbots, and his paws still needed work.

            Once again, they ran through the exercises first in slow motion, then on the run. This time, though, something had gone wrong. As Tails was transferring the knife from one paw to another, his fingers had slipped. The knife had gone the wrong direction, and the next thing he knew, he had a nasty cut on his arm.

            It had hurt and bled but wasn't serious. Nonetheless, Sonic had reacted by ending the day's training immediately and bringing Tails back to Knothole for care.

            Rosie had cleaned and bandaged the wound. If her winks were any indication, she knew Tails felt it was all unnecessary. She'd even whispered to him, "Sonic would have to lose a limb before he'd come here himself!"

            Now, though, she was gone, which left Tails alone with the animal he was beginning to think of as Sonic the Worry-wart.

            Sonic said, "I know you think I'm goin' overboard…"

            "Sonic, you're way past overboard!"

            "Well, I wanna do this right!" Before Tails could say more, Sonic said, "I know, I know, just 'cause I wanna do it right doesn't mean I'll always be right. That doesn't mean I have to be cool with it."

            "Sonic, it's worse than that," Tails said. "You're babying me."

            Sonic's head snapped to attention. "Yeah," said Tails. "I mean, it's one thing to know you didn't do everything right—it's another to think you can't do anything 'cause you might mess up."

            Sonic grimaced, but didn't speak. "Sonic, it's just a flesh wound. I'm not gonna spend the rest of today sittin' here! If you won't train me, I'll find Aunt Sally!"

            Tails blushed after saying it, and not just because he hated using such a mean tone to Sonic. It was an awkward mix of immaturity and the desire to not be immature, and Tails wasn't really sure how Sonic would react. Would this work, or would it justify him? Because when Tails thought about it, he didn't want to train except with Sonic. At the same time, he couldn't very well step back—it was said, and to recant would be another way of saying he wasn't ready, wasn't sure of himself. Like Sonic, one of his desires was to never ever have to say that.

            Luckily, Sonic saved the situation. "Hey, relax, big guy. You're right, it's just a scratch. Let's hit the road, lil' bro!"

            But when they got back, they practiced with paws and with rope. The knife stayed where it had fallen.

            Sally half-grinned at Rotor and Bunnie as they watched, slack-jawed, her plan of attack.

            Only half-grinned, because her insides were twisted up in knots. She had more doubts about her plan than her companions did.

            "Well, uh…" started Rotor, then thought better of it.

            "You see, Ah think…" Bunnie trailed off as well. 

            The plan was enormously ambitious, Sally knew that well. It would destroy a lot of raw material and ruin the productive capacity of the factory for a very long time—if it worked.

            The problem was that it was a bad plan.

            "Come on," said Sally. "Say what you want to say."

            "Ah can't, Sally-girl," said Bunnie, folding her arms. "It wouldn't be decent."

            That was Bunnie's way of saying she only had bad things to say about the plan. Sally expected no less. 

            "Well, Sally, it—it has its good points," Rotor began, "but I can't figure out how it's supposed to work."

            That was another circuitous way to doubt the plan. How it works is in front of you, thought Sally. What you meant was, you don't know how we're supposed to pull it off.

            "It's simple," said Sally. "Bunnie, you and I will levitate into position. Rotor and Tails will copy Sonic's speed. Sonic will learn how to be multiple places at once. If we hurry and learn it all before tonight, we'll be fine."

            They stared at her.

            She cracked up laughing. "Guys, the fact is that this plan won't work as it stands. I'm trying to get Uncle Chuck to get more information, starting at the refinery. But for now, tonight, we're hitting a cargo bay instead."

            Rotor and Bunnie sighed in relief, causing Sally to smile. "Just remember, even cargo bays are difficult targets," she said to them. "Here's plan B. Now let's see if we can do something tonight."


	2. Raid

            "Yo, Orb-head! Over here!"

            Sonic smiled broadly as the Stealth Orb turned in his direction. "Catch me if you can, Evil Eye!"

            With a laugh he launched himself down the street. A glance over his shoulder confirmed that the Orb was trailing him, just like it was supposed to. With any luck, it was calling the nearest Swatbots to its location—and well away from Sally, Bunnie, and Tails.

            He glanced over his shoulder again in time to see the Orb turn away. He skidded to a halt. "Hey, no fair! C'mon, bot brain, play by the rules!" Looking around, he saw a small chunk of rubble. In one motion he scooped it and readied to throw it.

            The rubble disintegrated on impact with the Stealth Orb, but the Orb seemed not to notice. "All right, this is makin' me mad. What's up?" The Orb continued to move away. Sonic looked around and listened, alert for anything, but all he could hear was the ambient background noise of Robotropolis. Slowly Sonic followed the Orb, shouting insults at it, trying to get its attention.

            It resumed its original position. Sonic turned away in disgust. "Fine, I'll find someone else to play with," he said.

            Just as he accelerated away from the Orb, he felt a wave of heat pass behind him, then heard the sounds of several heavy blasters firing at him. As he ran, he checked over his shoulder. A full quintet of hover units was on his tail. It was only by turning away at that instant that he'd avoided their shots.

            He laughed. "Well, that dumb ol' Stealth Orb did its job after all. Juice it loose, guys!"

            Bunnie whispered to Sally, "Um, Sally-girl, how much further?"

            "Not very much, Bunnie, just a little more."

            Bunnie shook her head. This ventilation duct was cramped for one animal, let alone three, one after another. They were blocking the airflow enough that she half-imagined some bot would notice. Then again, the bots didn't care; the ducts weren't made for them. But for the furries, it was stuffy and hot.

            Tails was holding up well, she thought. He was keeping his cool and following directions really well. And if being in such close proximity with the two ladies was affecting him any, he was doing a heroic job of keeping it under wraps. She smiled, wondering if he was that old or not. She'd have to ask him some day.

            Well, no time like the present… Why not now? She turned the idea over in her head. Though she had a strong urge to ask, she decided that given the circumstances Tails was addled and worried enough; he didn't need Bunnie distracting him with embarrassing questions.

            And why was her mind in such a rut at a time like this? Come one, Bunnie, pay a little attention!

            It was hard for her to keep quiet in the duct, but long years of practice had made her good at it. The three animals continued to move until at last Sally said, "Stop!"

            Bunnie didn't see the next part, but she saw lights ahead of Tails and Sally. A few moments later, she vaguely saw Sally disappear from view—she'd dropped through.

            "Come on, Tails!" she called.

            "Go on, sugar!" said Bunnie, but Tails needed no more encouragement. He was out already. Bunnie brought up the tail.

            "Stay back!" hissed Sally. Bunnie jumped backwards and felt her tail press against the wall. She was looking forward, but felt Sally and Tails next to her.

            Where were they, anyway? Bunnie looked around as best she could. She saw Swatbots headed away, but other than that only storage containers.

            "Slide along the wall," Sally whispered. Bunnie did as she was told, and the three of them moved. 'What in the world is going on?' That was all Bunnie could think about. She then looked left and saw that Sally was going to squeeze them in behind a storage container.

            There was barely enough room for Bunnie. "Sally-girl, what's the plan?"

            "Well," she said, "the plan had been for me to climb up this side of the container," she said, pointing up. The container was several meters tall. "But I don't think I have the room in here." She turned to Bunnie in sudden inspiration. "Bunnie, I'm going to ask you do something unusual."

            'This can't be good,' she thought.

            "Throw me to the top of the container."

            "Sally-girl, have you gone to seed? There ain't no way to manage that!"

            "We'll have to go out to the side of the container. Can't you do it?"

            "Well, Ah… Ah guess Ah could, but Ah don't like it!"

            "Neither do I, but I have to get up there."

            "Well, how the hoo-ha are you plannin' to get down?"

            Sally couldn't answer, but Tails spoke up. "I'll help," he said. "I'll fly up there, and when Aunt Sally's done, I'll drop her slowly to the ground."

            "Tails, darlin', can you fly her up there?"

            "Nuh-uh," he said, his face grave. "I'm not strong enough. But you're really strong. If you can get her up, I'll get her down."

            Dang, Bunnie thought, now I can't say no. "Alright, Sally-girl, this ain't gonna be easy." The three animals came out to the side of the container to get enough room to operate. She tried several grips on Sally, with none of them getting the control or power she needed. She couldn't do a hammer-throw style; she couldn't do a boost-style; she couldn't do any style at all. Definitely not stylish, she thought.

            "Enougha this," she said. She grabbed Sally by the scruff of the neck with her left hand and used the right hand to guide her body. She twisted and hurled Sally upwards.

            Next thing she knew, she saw the brown shape of Sally's body going over the edge of the container. Great, she thought, now I can't see what's happening! Beside her, Tails jumped into the air and flew to the top of the container.

            Bunnie waited several anxious seconds, almost a very anxious minute, before she saw any more signs of her friends. Eventually she saw Tails hovering directly above her. She called up quietly, "Y'all done?"

            She then saw Sally fly out from the top of the container!

            Bunnie barely suppressed her scream by jamming her paw into her throat.

            Sally's motion abruptly stopped, and Bunnie saw that she'd caught hold of Tails' paws. Her panic subsided at the exact rate that the two of them descended—very slowly.

            "Sally-girl, Ah swear you are tryin' to age me."

            "You think it was easy watching?" said Tails, panting. "Do you know how heavy Aunt Sally is?"

            Sally's face betrayed her outrage. Bunnie chuckled and said to Tails, "Tails, a tip for dealin' with ladies. Don't talk 'bout their weight, 'specially not in front of them."

            "Okay, Aunt Bunnie," said Tails with a gleam in his eye. Bunnie suddenly got the idea that he'd known that tip before speaking. There was no way to be sure, of course, but still…

            Inspired, Bunnie turned to Sally, "Yeah, Sally-girl. Ah mean, Ah've got an excuse—mah metal. But if you're heavy, it's all on you, if you know what Ah mean."

            "I am on the verge of leaving the two of you behind," Sally pouted.

            "That's not funny, Aunt Sally," said Tails, looking around furtively.

            With a shock Bunnie remembered they were still in Robotropolis. Sally immediately took charge. "This way!" she said. She led the Freedom Fighters back the way they came.

            Bunnie's relief increased with every step.

            Tails staggered into his hut, tired to the bone but feeling great.

            His second mission as a real Freedom Fighter had gone just fine. He'd stuck with Sally and Bunnie and they'd gotten in and out without a hitch. He wasn't sure exactly what had been done, but he knew that Sally had placed something inside the cargo bin, and whatever it was couldn't be good for Robotnik.

            Even the victory party afterwards had been less trying. The citizens of Knothole had contented themselves with Sally's vague explanation and hadn't pressed the Freedom Fighters too much. Tails was grateful for that. He wasn't sure he could get used to being admired.

            He hung to the latter thought. He was admired. As a Freedom Fighter, others admired him, just as he'd admired the real Freedom Fighters before.

            If you only knew, he thought to the animals of Knothole. If you only knew how terrifying it is to go there.

            Tails' emotions were mixed again. He liked that he finally understood what really happened, what was really going on. Then again, the only way to understand how scary being a Freedom Fighter was would be to be a Freedom Fighter. In other words, be just as scared.

            But as he stared up at the ceiling that night, his paws didn't shake.

            I can handle this, he thought.

            I can handle this.

            It started off rough, but I can live with it after all. I can help. I can live through raids. I can get in and out. And I can not get nightmares out of it.

            I can handle being a Freedom Fighter.

            He slept.

            "What happened?!"

            "Sir, we're still looking over it."

            Robotnik was impatient and furious. It just wasn't right that a convoy suddenly dropped off radar.

            "Sir, it appears that we've been sabotaged."

            "Of course we've been sabotaged! Get on with it!"

            "The convoy was carrying our few remaining Stealth Bots. We haven't been producing them, so we only had the reserves in storage. This convoy was moving them from storage to the launch bays."

            "And now they're gone? How is that possible? Have you been getting the observation videos up?"

            "Yes, sir, the Stealth Orbs are approaching now."

            Robotnik looked out of his personal hover unit. Normally, he would already be watching the feed, as the Stealth Orbs could send their feeds to Headquarters via the mainframe.

            But the mainframe was down! Robotnik smashed his fist against his chair and was disgusted to see the chair's arm cave. That was shoddy construction, nothing more, he thought.

            Snively opened the door of the unit and let the Stealth Orb approach. He then hooked it up to the unit's onboard computer. The video feed came up.

            "Stealth Orb," said Snively, "time index 2213 dash 64." The image that appeared was of the convoy: two freighters with a number of hover units around.

            For no apparent reason, the rear of the first freighter exploded.

            The suddenness of it made both Robotnik and Snively jump. As they watched, the first freighter stopped moving forward. The second freighter had been following closely for protection and was unable to stop. The front of the second freighter became tangled with the back of the first.

            Unable to support itself, the first freighter began falling to the ground. The humans watched helplessly as the attached second freighter was dragged down as well. Buildings blocked the Orb's view, but a few seconds later the outcome became only too obvious as flames leapt skywards.

            "Snively, are there ANY Stealth Bots remaining?"

            "Three or four only, sir."

            "We have no factories for them? At all?"

            "Sir, we haven't built a Stealth Bot in four years."

            A growl was rising from the back of Robotnik's throat. He hated this situation! He couldn't strike back at the Freedom Fighters! All his plans were on hold, because they needed the mainframe to operate; he was completely on the defensive until he got his computers back.

            Robotnik felt some momentary relief when he considered he would never have gotten this far if the other side in the Great War had had a military mind half as good as the princess. That relief passed in a second.

            He couldn't give a wide-band order to change the behavior of all freighters; he didn't have the communications support.

            "What did we lose, in total?"

            "Two freighters… one hover unit caught shrapnel and went down as well. A total of eight Swatbots and sixteen Stealth Bots, plus that hover unit."

            "No worker bots?"

            "Negative, sir. Those aren't programmed to fly vehicles."

            That was something. The losses were still staggering, though.

            Robotnik knew that the hedgehog had been in the city earlier that night. The hover units following him had reported that he hadn't entered a single building; he'd just run around, then run away.

            He was covering for the others, of course. But knowing that wouldn't help Robotnik find those others.

            The growl rose further into Robotnik's throat. What could he do to stop them that he wasn't already doing?

To be continued…


	3. Markers

            "Yaaah!" Sonic screamed.

            He whipped his face around, searching for what had woken him up. A second blast of water splashed into his face.

            "This is NOT cool!" Sonic shouted. He shook his head again, flipping the water off as he scanned for his assailant.

            There! He saw something coming from his window. He dove out of bed and out of the way. Almost without pause, he leapt out the window and right onto his unseen attacker.

            "Tails?!"

            The kit was laughing. "Sonic, you're good!"

            Sonic got up, dumbfounded, as Tails just kept on laughing. He saw that Tails was holding a cup; nearby, a bucket mostly full of water still sat. "I don't see what's so hilarious," Sonic said.

            "Well," Tails said, recovering, "now that you're up, let's go training!"

            Sonic's jaw dropped. "What time is it?" He looked around and failed to find the sun.

            "It's after sunrise, I checked," said Tails.

            The fact that there was some question told Sonic that it was way too early. "Tails, we need to get some sleep if we're gonna be hot for tonight's raid."

            "Well, we get to sleep before we go on the raid, so we have no excuse not to start early in the morning. Come on, Sonic!"

            Immediately the kit set off towards the forest. Sonic stared incredulously, and wondered to himself, What have I done?

            He caught up to Tails quickly. "Uh, Tails… why're you so burnin' to train?"

            "Because it's fun!"

            "Fun. How?"

            "Come on, Sonic. I slept just fine last night. I can handle being a Freedom Fighter."

            Sonic wondered if Tails was right. Tails had never witnessed a Roboticisation, so Sonic kept his doubts. Still, there was no good reason not to actively help Tails out with this.

            And maybe it would be fun, after all.

            Sonic finally began to really wake up. "Alright, Tails, let's juice it loose! C'mon, you think you're too cool—just wait, an' I'll show you what chillin' is when it's done big time. I'm so cool I'm sizzlin'!"

            Both Sonic and Tails laughed.

            "Mark," said Sally.

            Bunnie and Rotor exchanged worried glances. "That didn't work how it was supposed to," said Rotor to Bunnie.

            "Got that right, sugar," replied Bunnie.

            "Come on, you've got to do better," said Sally.

            "She's just tryin' to make us sweat, Rotor hon. Let's think this through."

            "I predict the game will end inside of six turns," said Sally.

            "Just tryin' to psych us out, Rotor."

            "Will the both of you muzzle it?" said Rotor, exasperated.

            There was a stunned silence. "Sorry," said Rotor weakly.

            "Don't you worry, Rotor. You had every right to say that. Sally-girl was acting so very…"

            "I was talking to you, too," corrected Rotor.

            Bunnie huffed indignantly. Sally grinned.

            "Bunnie, you take over for a turn or two. I've got to make sure everything is working right."

            "Oh, sure, abandon me now, jus' when we're in trouble."

            "You were the one saying it was just Sally."

            "But…"

            "I'll be right back." Rotor rose from the table and waddled to his workbench. The project he was working on only required his direct attention for a few minutes at a time. To pass the hours, he'd brought up an old Mobian game called Markers. No one in Knothole had ever beaten Sally at this game—her powers of foresight were far too advanced—but Rotor had recruited Bunnie to help him. Between them, they'd been hoping to at least make the game close, and certainly to make it fun, while Rotor monitored the project.

            Originally, they'd planned that Bunnie would examine the short-term aspects of the game, and Rotor the long term. The problem was that, although they had two players, they still only got one turn at a time—and their conflicts in deciding which of their views was more important were turning the game into a more one-sided win for Sally than was normal.

            'Markers' was a game that seemed like it had been created by a committee. There were two ways to win and several different types of pieces. It bore a vague similarity to Terran chess in that there were a variety of pieces with different numbers, value, and abilities. However, there were two notable differences. The first was that each piece could be "marked", or threatened and forced to move or be protected, giving the player with the initiative an important advantage. The second difference was the win conditions. You could win either by capturing territory—getting a certain number of pieces up the board—or by wiping out your opponent.

            This allowed for multiple roads to victory and several schools of thought on the "best" route. Some players were known for the brute force attack, crushing the opponent by never declaring "mark", thus giving them "free" kills that the opponent couldn't see coming. Other players favored a near-bloodless conquest win, using "mark" almost exclusively to shift the opponent from position and moving in only the pieces necessary to win.

            Sally's strength was that she seldom showed her opponents what she was really up to. She always seemed to be accomplishing both win conditions at once.

            Right now, Bunnie and Rotor's forces were in the midst of falling apart. Sally had cleverly punched a hole in the middle of Bunnie's lines and Sally was now surging through the gap, causing havoc in Bunnie's plans.

            Bunnie scratched her head. "Have you ever lost at this, Sally-girl?" She moved a piece to try and salvage the situation.

            "Yes, when I was first taught the game at the palace. I really didn't know the rules—I just moved the pieces I liked looking at." She smiled, and fingered one of the pieces she'd captured. "But I didn't like losing very much. After we came to Knothole, I learned the rules and read up on tactics. I knew how experts played the game before I ever played one of you."

            "Didja hear that, Rotor? If we wanna beat her, we're gonna have to do our homework."

            "I tried, once," said Rotor as he inspected something. "I couldn't understand the notation."

            "Well, so much fer that," she said.

            "I'll show you how some time," said Sally, as she moved a piece. "It's been good training for me. Mark."

            Bunnie's jaw dropped. Sally had put an entire wing of Bunnie's army in immediate danger and forced Bunnie's only real defending piece to leave its position. Mechanically, Bunnie withdrew the piece.

            "Sally-girl, you are amazin'."

            "Thanks, Bunnie." When Bunnie looked at her, Sally seemed to be staring through the board and into something else. What, exactly, Bunnie couldn't tell.

            "You thinkin' about somethin'?"

            "Always, Bunnie."

            "No, Ah mean somethin' else. Not here."

            "Not really." Sally drove home her advantage on the board. "I was just comparing my situation here to our fight against Robotnik."

            Bunnie looked. She couldn't see a similarity. "Sally-girl, all Ah know is that you're whuppin' my tail!" She tried to save as much as she could. She tried to withdraw a piece from the deathtrap Sally had set up.

            "Let me show you." Sally then proceeded to remove almost her entire army before making a move with one of her few remaining pieces.

            Bunnie was stupefied. Her situation had seemed hopeless just a second or two ago. Now even the forces she had remaining could definitely overpower what Sally had left on the table. She moved aggressively, no longer restrained by Sally's reinforcements.

            Sally responded while talking. "This is just how I feel like when fighting Robotnik. He's got power, he's got numbers, and I've got to shift him from position with a small group of irreplaceable pieces."

            Bunnie moved to sacrifice a piece, hoping it would force Sally into a poor position. "Mark," she said.

            To her amazement, Sally attacked. The piece that was threatened pounced on Bunnie's sacrifice. Automatically, Bunnie exacted revenge.

            Sally responded simply, moving her other pieces forward. Bunnie didn't understand. Sally's move had slowed Bunnie down, but only by a turn. She moved to trap Sally, cut her off, and destroy what she had left.

            Sally moved one last piece. "Markout," she said.

            That was the declaration of victory! Bunnie took a second look at the board and realized painfully that Sally was right. Sally had exactly the number of pieces necessary to declare a "conquest" win, and they were all just in the right positions. If Bunnie had had another turn, she could've reduced Sally's force and broken her ability to win—but Sally's timely sacrifice had kept Bunnie from acting, giving Sally just enough time to move into position.

            "I never saw it coming," said Rotor, who had returned to watch the end of the game.

            Bunnie laughed. "Well, good then, 'cause I didn't either! So, Sally-girl, just how does this matter to us 'n Robotnik?"

            Sally smiled. "You get to be Robotnik's army. The pieces that I had in the beginning of the game are all the animals in the rest of the world. They're holding Robotnik in place by keeping him engaged.

            "The pieces I had at the end of the game… well, I like to think that those are us. We're outnumbered, outgunned, but we don't have to destroy everything to win. That's good, because we don't have any hope of destroying it all. But if we weaken things enough, we can punch through and finish the war in one good shot. We just have to play it smart until we get the shot."

            "That's all nice, Ah suppose," said Bunnie. "But who-all is this one?"

            She held up the piece that Sally had sacrificed to buy her time.

            Sally grimaced and looked away.

            "You're right. Maybe this wasn't the best example."

            An uneasy silence fell over the hut. "Sally-girl, good game," Bunnie declared.

            "One of these days," Rotor said, extending a paw, "I'm going to figure out how to beat you at this."

            "Good luck," said Sally, laughing. She shook Rotor's paw, then Bunnie's. "Now, I have to see if Robotnik is impressed by my skill with board games."

            "Well, Sally-girl, if this war comes down to who can play 'Markers', Ah feel pretty sure that we can win it!"

To be continued…


	4. Disaster

            Tails saw the Stealth Orb coming and froze.

            Oh, no! I can't do anything to it!

            It was flying too high to reach without Tails going airborne himself, which would be too easy to see.

            He glanced around frantically for some place to hide, but nothing was in sight. This alleyway had nothing to hide behind, and no windows or doors to duck into.

            He had enough presence of mind to grab Bunnie's arm. She turned to him, whispering, "What, sugar?"

            Tails pointed, but it was too late. The Stealth Orb had heard, and the camera swiveled towards the Freedom Fighters.

            Bunnie was airborne instantly, her legs and genes giving her great agility. She brought her metal fist down onto the Stealth Orb, crushing it and smashing it to the ground. After it landed, it resembled nothing so much as a rumpled ball of aluminum foil.

            The sound of it landing snapped Tails into action. He went straight into his backpack and dug for the communicator. He handed it to Bunnie as she came back to him.

            "Sally-girl," she said, "Ah think we've been spotted. Now, maybe it didn't see us, but Ah don't feel so good."

            "Damn," said Sally.

            Tails was thunderstruck. He came very close to falling over. He'd never heard Sally curse, nor had he ever heard of her cursing.

            To his further astonishment, Bunnie simply ignored the curse. "Y'all want us to try an' get through anyway?"

            A few precious seconds went by before Sally responded, "No, it's too risky. Sonic and I will try to force our way in. Get back to Knothole, and hurry! If you were spotted…"

            If we were spotted, Tails thought with mounting alarm, then hordes of Swatbots are already on their way!

            Bunnie nodded calmly. "Gotcha, Sally-girl." She handed the communicator back to Tails. As soon as he put it back in his backpack, she grabbed his arm and hauled him behind her.

            "You know the deal, Tails?" she said over her shoulder.

            "I think so," he replied, not sure what she was asking but too scared to think about it.

            "We just got to get our selves outta here, an' in a hurry," she said. "Those things are like ants. Where there's one, there's a lot."

            Tails shivered—the prospect of that many Swatbots swarming up like ants made his skin crawl. 

            So he let Bunnie pull him along through the city. She was going awfully fast, and it was wearing Tails out trying to keep up with her, but he had to admit it sure beat the alternative.

            He began to think that maybe the Stealth Orb hadn't seen them, after all. Why were they overreacting like this? We coulda done it. Whenever he thought that, though, he thought of Swatbots swarming out of the ground, and felt better for withdrawing.

            Tails looked around, seeing if anything was following them. It looked like they'd… oh no!

            Tails sped up, trying to get up to Bunnie. He was tired already, and speeding up was almost impossible, but he managed to get almost in contact with her. He put a hand over Bunnie's shoulder, gave a mighty heave, and plowed the two of them into a trash heap on the side of the road.

            Sounds of heavy blaster fire and the explosions of super-heated materials vaporizing drowned out the sounds of the animals as they fell into the heaps.

            Bunnie reacted so swiftly and calmly Tails almost believed she'd expected it to happen this way. She turned back to face-up, picking Tails off of her as she rolled. She watched the unit for a while, then set Tails down and stood.

            "Stay down," she said to Tails as she picked him up by the scruff of the neck. Then she tossed him—bodily—through the nearest window.

            The glass that had formerly graced the window had long since shattered, so Tails had an unimpeded route to the floor. He wasn't thinking, which was fortunate, because if he'd thought, it would have overridden his instincts. As he hit the ground, he rolled as he'd been taught.

            He heard the heavy blaster firing again and again as the hover unit passed up the road again. There was no way to know what it was hitting!

            Bunnie was still out there!

            "Bunnie!" Tails cried. Ignoring her command to stay down, he looked out.

            The hover unit was strafing fire up the street. At the last moment Bunnie dodged out of the way—but too slowly!

            Tails had heard stories about how events were supposed to slow down when something horrible was happening. He found no evidence to support that here. He hardly saw the blaster shot; after that, the hover unit was in the way.

            But he heard the shriek of pain.

            He leapt out of the window. He was beside her in a moment. She was sprawled out on the ground on her side, one leg over the other. She looked fine, except for her face—it was contorted in pain. She saw him coming, and helped him as he dragged her out of the street and into the abandoned building Tails had occupied before.

            Tails heard the hover unit as it landed outside. His blood was pounding in his ears; his thinking was muddled beyond coherency. He let go of Bunnie after dragging her behind what had been a desk.

            The darkness meant he still didn't know what was wrong with her, but he could faintly smell smoke. "Tails," she said through gritted teeth.

            "Huh?" He was sluggish! He felt frustration welling up in him—respond, you, respond! This is danger—don't shut down!

            "You'll have to fight 'em, Tails. Those things have two bots each, an' they're comin'."

            Two on one?

            "Stay calm, Tails."

            "Why can't you help?" Tails said. His throat was so constricted it came out as a shriek.

            "Ah would," she said, "Ah wish Ah could, but it's up to you. Here they come!"

            Tails mechanically drew the knife from the backpack's side pocket. He hopped up and moved to the doorway.

            Adrenaline coursed through his system, giving him its benefits but only muddling his thinking further. He was acting without actual conscious thought.

            He was standing to the side of the doorway. The first Swatbot walked through the door. Tails lunged, knife first.

            He was aiming for the armor seam in its side.

            CLANG!

            He'd missed!

            The knife glanced off harmlessly, but it didn't stop Tails. His motion continued until he slammed into the bot.

            He was facing the second bot. Its eye glowed red at him, and it raised its blaster.

            Tails jumped straight up. As his arm drew parallel to its eye, he drove the knife home.

            The knife penetrated straight into the optics of the Swatbot. Smoke belched from the wound, and the bot tipped backwards and fell, down for good.

            However, chopping optics with a knife on an already-dead Swatbot was far different from doing the same to a live one.

            Electricity coursed back up through the knife and blew Tails backwards—straight into the other Swatbot. The fox and the bot went down together. Tails rolled off, and the Swatbot stood.

            Both were highly unsettled—Swatbots as a rule had poor balance, and Tails' muscles were spasming from the electrical shock. But Tails' survival instinct was stronger.

            Before the Swatbot could recover, Tails went for its right arm—the one with the blaster. One paw went to the inner forearm. The other went outside. With all the strength the kit could muster he slammed the elbow joint.

            The two forces in conflicting directions shattered the joint.

            With a sickening crunch, the arm completely detached. Tails stumbled forward, the severed arm in his paws.

            The Swatbot reacted appropriately—it felt no pain, so the loss of its arm meant little. It swung its left arm.

            Tails fell backwards, colors exploding in his vision. The blow had knocked him all but unconscious—he couldn't muster the control to move his limbs. He landed and hovered on the edge of consciousness for a moment. Then the Swatbot picked him off the ground.

            Tails found it hard to breathe with a metal gauntlet constricting his throat.

            Panic. Total PANIC!

            Breathe can't BREATHE struggle squirm…

            His body writhed, all his energy focused on his neck.

            Breathe breathe BREATHE can't breathe…

            All his limbs flailed, furiously searching for support. He had to get this pressure off his neck!

            Breathe BREATHE!

            The death grip tightened. Tails' eyes were wide, his tongue lolling about as he tried to twist out of the grasp.

            BREATHE! Can't BREATH!

            Bang! A thought entered his head like a lightning bolt. Yes! Tails seized it and acted upon it.

            Drawing all the self-control he could he wrapped his paw around the Swatbot's severed hand. The bot's hand was still wrapped around the trigger, and now, so was Tails' paw.

            The first shot, all but unaimed, still managed to hit the Swatbot's chest. The Swatbot staggered back and dropped Tails.

            OXYGEN!

            Air flooded into his lungs so quickly he almost passed out. He coughed, purging the stale air from his lungs. Even Robotropolis air smelled sweet, and it was almost as toxic as the air his lungs were exhuming.

            The Swatbot all but fell forward towards Tails. The kit was in no hurry to let the Swatbot reach him again. Even as he sucked in air, he raised the severed Swatbot blaster arm.

            From his position, Tails fired twice more, gouging a deep hole in the Swatbot's chest. It fell backwards, dropping to the ground with a clunk. Tails hopped up and ran to its body. He had to make sure it never got up so he fired and he fired and he fired again again againagain…

            "Sugar!"

            Bunnie's voice snapped him out of it. He dropped the Swatbot's arm, still clutching its blaster, and ran back to Bunnie.

            Before he could collapse, crying, into her side, she said to him, "Now c'mon, we all need to get our furry butts outta here before more pop up."

            He gathered his composure, nodded, and helped get her to her feet. Now, at last, he saw what was wrong with her.

            The heavy blaster of the hover unit had hit her leg. Now, between her hip and her knee was mostly slag.

            And if her expression were any indication, then Roboticisation hadn't affected her ability to feel pain.

            "Ah'll guide you out, Tails," she said through clenched teeth. "Follah mah directions. We're gonna go through the trash heaps—smells worse than a skunk eatin' onions, but there's nothin' else to do right now."

            Tails nodded numbly. Honestly, he couldn't see the trash heaps proving worse a chore than taking two Swatbots by himself.

            Two Swatbots! He thought about it for a moment. He'd taken both down at once, and without any help at all. It gave him a modest feeling of elation.

            But all he had to do to erase that elation was look at Bunnie's leg.

            Or touch his neck to make sure no other hand was grasping it.

            Sonic gave a wild shake, trying to get the hay out of his quills. Sally did a similar thing next to him, though of course she was far more dignified about it.

            "How 'bout it, Sal? Are we cool or what?"

            "What do you mean, Sonic?"

            "We toasted that generator by ourselves! Blowin' through Swatbots left an' right! Power-Ring supercharged an' everything! Now tell me that hasn't gotcha jazzed!"

            "It hasn't."

            Sonic suddenly felt that something bad was up. "Sal, what's the deal?"

            "Remember how Bunnie and Tails said they were spotted? I haven't heard back from them since then."

            Sonic smiled. "Well, you're gonna hear back now. Here comes Tails."

            His smile faded quickly when he saw the kit's expression. "Sonic, Aunt Sally, it's Bunnie!"

            No other words were necessary. They followed Tails at a run.

            They found her stretched out on Rotor's work bench, all but shredding his oil rags in pain. "Rotor!" screamed Sally. "Why's she in pain?"

            "I guess I misunderstood Roboticisation," he said, bewildered.

            "How CAN she be in pain?" asked Sonic.

            "A Roboticised Mobian isn't the same as a normal robot," said Rotor, continuing to inspect the wound. "I guess… when Uncle Chuck designed the Roboticiser, he designed analogous circuits for everything in the Mobian's body, even the nerves that sense pain."

            "It wouldn't do a robot any good," said Sally, understanding, "but he wasn't designing a robot. He wanted the animal to be as little different as possible. Feeling pain helps us remember that we're animals."

            "Fat lotta good that does me!" cried Bunnie, writhing.

            "Rotor?"

            "Bunnie… I—I can try to shut down the pain circuits, but it would take time, and I wouldn't be accurate. It might take a while, and I'd shut down other things along the way. Or… well, I have to do it anyway…"

            "Do what?" said Sonic and Sally together.

            Bunnie knew. "Do it, Rotor."

            "Bunnie, are you sure?"

            "Rotor, honey, do it! Now!"

            He didn't hesitate any more. He grabbed a tool from his bench and bent over Bunnie's body. Sonic couldn't see anything, but he heard some noises, and finally a hiss.

            Rotor stepped back, holding Bunnie's leg.


	5. Doubt

            It was a gray morning in Knothole. Everyone knew about Bunnie, and depression settled over the village like a malignant cloud. Very few citizens walked around; those that did acted as if they were waist-deep in mashed potatoes, moving about only with the greatest of difficulty.

            The fact that the Freedom Fighters had eliminated their target didn't change the fact that they'd been defeated soundly.

            Sonic and Tails sat silent in front of the Power Ring pool. Sonic was motionless, an absolutely bizarre condition for him, while Tails trailed a stick in the water. He wasn't controlling it well; the stick kept getting stuck in the reeds and the mud. Tails didn't know this, though. As far as he was concerned, the stick might have been a million kilometers away, controlled by someone else. He sure wasn't able to think about it.

            The two of them remained there.

            On any other day of the past few weeks—nay, on most days of the past year—Sonic and Tails would have been out "training". Sometimes this meant hide-and-seek or "tracking" exercises. Sometimes it meant helping in the gardens, under some pretense. The past two weeks, it had meant thinking and physical exercises and direct instruction about Robotropolis.

            Always it had been fun.

            Always… until yesterday, when it all became so real.

            "Sonic," said Tails.

            It had never truly been silent; the stream feeding the pool had bubbled, the non-sentient animals had rustled, the light wind had rustled the trees. Even so, for either Sonic or Tails to make a sound was like screaming at a library.

            Sonic barely registered. "Yeah?"

            "I don't wanna train today."

            Sonic nodded. "I know. I wasn't plannin' anything."

            "I want to…" Tails trailed off, but immediately came back again. "I want to forget about being a Freedom Fighter!"

            "I know," Sonic repeated dully.

            Tails hadn't expected this. He'd expected Sonic to argue against him, or at least tell him to reconsider.

            This reaction was worse. Tails wasn't sure how to proceed. All the time he'd spent planning this argument had just been flushed. Sonic just sat there impassively. What was wrong with him?

            "Don't you want me to be a Freedom Fighter?"

            "I donno," said Sonic.

            Tails began to panic. "Sonic, say something!"

            "About what?"

            "Being a Freedom Fighter!"

            Sonic finally moved, turning his head towards Tails. "Whaddya want me to say?"

            "Tell me why I should be a Freedom Fighter."

            There was a long silence. "I'm not sure I can," he said at last.

            "Why not?"

            Tails had to know. He was really scared now.

            "I'm not sure if I want you to be a Freedom Fighter."

            Tails went to Sonic, and the two embraced.

            "But one thing's for sure," Sonic said.

            "What?"

            "You can't forget it."

            Tails felt the fingers on his neck again and seized up. He felt Sonic shiver with every part of his body. Sonic continued to shiver for almost three seconds.

            Then they wept.

            Sally stared into the wall.

            Over the past three hours, she'd tried to plan a raid. No, she hadn't gotten that far. It had taken her three hours, and she hadn't even selected a target yet.

            She tried again to focus her attention. Let's see, backup generators here and here, blaster manufacturing, I sure hope Bunnie's okay, what will Tails think, how could that have happened…

            It had been like this the whole time.

            She shouted in frustration and tossed Nicole across the room.

            Instantly she followed the computer and picked it up again. "Nicole, are you alright?"

            Nicole's voice and its programmed patience eased Sally a small bit. "Systems check complete. All systems functioning normally."

            Sally fell back into her chair.

            What else am I supposed to be doing today? I can't remember. My attention is so scattered.

            Great. The only clear thoughts I can manage are the ones that make matters worse.

            The sound of her door opening gave Sally a jolt. She looked up and saw Sonic letting himself in.

            She slumped in her chair. "What, Sonic?"

            He didn't respond. The silence became tangible, an irritant that buzzed around Sally's head and crackled in her ears.

            Both she and Sonic sat there. She watched him carefully, but he made no move. If he came there for a reason, he wasn't sharing it with her.

            She couldn't stand the silence any longer! There couldn't be silence between them; it was too alien to comprehend in this company.

            "I've told Rotor to drop everything and devote himself full time to repairing Bunnie's leg."

            Sonic nodded slowly. "That's cool. Sooner she's healed, the better."

            Healed. The right word. She was a living creature, not a robot, after all.

            "Rotor says that, even working full time, it'll take him at least two weeks to do it if he can get all the parts he needs."

            There was no joke from Sonic, no crack about how could Rotor be missing something if the storage shed was so full, no nothing. He simply nodded sagely and said, "Yeah, that's good."

            Sally worried about the decision. She had no doubt it was the right one—though hearing that from Sonic certainly helped. No, it worried her because it weakened the Freedom Fighters still further. Any devices or explosives they needed—not to mention any possible work on their fledgling de-Roboticiser—would have to wait until Rotor could get back to them. And that could be quite a while, if what Rotor had told her was true.

            The blast had done severe damage to the leg. In an animal's body, it would have vaporized a good chunk of bone, leaving almost no chance of recovery. Ever. In a robot, the damage was easier to repair, but there was a complication.

            "She's a Roboticised animal," Rotor had said. "Some of the components are just ruined. I'd have to replace them if I wanted to repair the leg. But…" he'd trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

            "But that wouldn't be Bunnie?"

            "No."

            "Would it be indistinguishable? I mean, if we ever de-Roboticise her, would it be… her?"

            "That's the problem," Rotor had said, grimacing. "I don't know."

            Those words echoed in Sally's ears—and she dared not repeat them to Sonic. More depression was not what he needed if she was any judge of hedgehogs, and she was.

            "No training Tails today?"

            She'd just been searching for something to say, but by the look on Sonic's face, she'd hit him in a soft spot. "I couldn't do it, Sal," he said. "I can't bring myself to do anything with Tails right now."

            "Because of what happened to Bunnie?"

            "Kinda. It's not just 'cause I'm afraid of that happenin' to Tails. I hate that he was put in that situation. An' I hate that there was nothin' I could do about it." He shrugged. "The only thing I can think is that I've messed up."

            Sally laughed bitterly. "No, not you, Sonic. If anyone, it's me. You didn't put them in that situation; I did by making a faulty plan. I led them right into trouble. I was too ambitious and pushed too hard."

            "C'mon, Sal, you know better than that."

            "What do I know?"

            "That it wasn't your fault!"

            "Then how is it yours?"

            "'Cause I didn't pull 'em out!"

            "Isn't that my fault, too? I made you come with me to try and complete the mission anyway, and it ended like this."

            "Sal, I'm not gonna let you think this was your fault. You always say it's your fault, and it's not."

            "You seem only too willing to take the blame on yourself, even though you have more tenuous claims to it than me."

            Sonic laid his paw on hers, making her jump a little in surprise at the contact. "Sal, let's be miserable together."

            "Why?"

            "'Cause it beats bein' miserable alone."

            To this she could only nod, and firmly grasp him back with her paw. 

            He was right. It was better.

            They sat for a few moments. "How's Tails taking it?" she asked.

            "Better than I am," said Sonic. "I think he'll be alright."

            "I'm just scared about how close a call that was. You know Tails almost got strangled."

            Sonic nodded.

            "But… perversely…" Sally trailed off. "It turns out that some of the things we saw in Tails, we were right about. There is an advantage to training him. We'd been using Bunnie to bring him along, and he ended up saving her life."

            "Finally!" said Sonic.

            "What?"

            "I knew there had to be somethin' good that happened. That was it. Tails saw Bunnie get mangled, but trashed those bots an' got her out, and that's way past cool. So somethin' good DID happen!"

            Sally tried to smile. "That's all you need?"

            "Sal, you can't keep a good 'hog down. I don't wanna be depressed. Sure, I wanna not make the same stupid mistake, but I don't plan on mopin' around forever. So if somethin' cool happened, I wanna make a big deal out of it. I wanna be happy about that. You got me?"

            Sally smiled, this time genuinely. "I'm glad to know you, Sonic Hedgehog."

            Sonic shrugged and smiled. "I try."

            The plan was blown already.

            Rotor had reported a close call with some patrolling Swatbots. Sonic had had to smash two hover units already. Now Sally was staring down a pair of Stealth Orbs.

            Given that, Sally didn't see anything wrong with using the flare gun. Normally she avoided using it if at all possible; it was too obvious to everyone, Robotnik included. However, under the circumstances, it might actually be better to use the flare; it would draw bots away from the Freedom Fighters that weren't yet in position.

            She aimed the flare gun at a Stealth Orb above her. When she fired the gun, the flare caught the Stealth Orb and carried to into the night sky.

            Boom!

            A spectacular explosion lit up the smog over Robotropolis and scattered the Stealth Orb into uncountable fragments.

            That was the signal, Sally thought. Everyone should have seen that. If they did, then as of now they know that I'm aborting the plan.

            Sally leapt up and got a paw onto the other Orb. It shook wildly, trying to evade her grip. It succeeded, and she fell into the muck. Before she went, though, she'd put several fingers into the camera of the Orb. Now it was blind, a worthless hunk of scrap metal floating in the air.

            Sally left it far behind her. Since I told everyone else to evacuate, she thought, it wouldn't quite be safe for me not to.

            As she gradually left the combat zone, she gradually was able to think more, and gradually felt worse.

            Two failed missions in a row. They were running out of time before Robotnik got the Robotropolis mainframe back online, and they weren't taking advantage of it.

            She'd been wrong to push things so much. Everyone was on edge from what had happened to Bunnie. They were tired from going on three raids in a row. She'd tried too hard, asked too much.

            What everyone needed was just a night off.

            But if she let up, this opportunity would slip through her fingers.

            She hated being in charge sometimes.

            So many years of close contact with Robotnik had made Snively very adept at picking up signals from Robotnik. The little expressions or gestures Robotnik made, that he thought insignificant, gave Snively the information he needed to keep himself safe from his boss' wrath.

            Snively watched Robotnik carefully. His hands were shaking a little, but now becoming still. Was that… relief?

            Why would Robotnik be relieved that Sonic was getting away?

            "Sir," Snively said, "the Swatbots have lost the hedgehog, and they can't seem to find the princess."

            "Very good," said Robotnik.

            Why? Snively decided to risk asking. "Sir, why is that good? I thought we wanted to catch the hedgehog."

            Robotnik threw a sharp glance at Snively, causing him to shudder. "Snively, what I need right now is to not be distracted by those rodents. We haven't the time nor the resources to deal with those furries right now. If they just stay out of my way, I'll be thankful."

            Snively tried to analyze why that might be. Robotnik spared him the trouble and spoke again.

            "Even with all of our worker bots, it will take at least two more days before the mainframe is operational again. Until then, we can't coordinate a pursuit. We have a lot of difficulty protecting my city. And most importantly, we can't rebuild anything they destroy."

            "But surely we can when we're done with the mainframe, sir. All these worker bots…"

            "Snively, have you comprehended the communications you read to me? We brought in half of these worker bots from other cities, and now those cities are screaming for them back. This is the most important city in my empire, but I can't afford to ignore the other places. So after the immediate priority of the mainframe is solved, I have no choice but to send those bots back."

            He clenched his fist. "So no, we won't have this large of a workforce to repair the damage. Losing the Stealth Bots was painful but not crippling, but losing that power plant hurts. As if I didn't have enough administration problems already!"

            Your problems, Snively thought, you mean my problems. He didn't have time to relish the thought, however, as Robotnik turned to Snively again. "So, Snively, I want you to make sure that we have some freighters free to transport those worker bots back when we're done with them."

            "Yes, sir." Snively looked at the computer displays on the hover unit, then looked over the smaller computers all around him. Over the past few days, Robotnik and Snively had installed several computers in this hover unit, making it the closest thing to a command point they could manage. It was still far, far inferior to the mainframe, but it was better than nothing. "Two oil tankers are coming in two days from now. They will be available after they dump their oil at the refinery complex."

            "That will do," said Robotnik.


	6. Recuperation

            Sonic and Tails entered Rotor's workshop. As usual, Bunnie and Rotor were there. Around Bunnie there was a growing supply of flowers, cards, and other small tokens.

            Bunnie had spent most of her time in Rotor's workshop since she'd been shot. This was for two reasons. First, it helped Rotor to be able to compare the ruined leg to the undamaged one. He'd studied them before Bunnie's injury and found them to be close to identical, so he was using Bunnie as a guide.

            Second, Bunnie wasn't overly enthusiastic about going around outside without a leg. She preferred to stay in Rotor's company.

            Oddly enough, a good portion of Bunnie's room had migrated to Rotor's workshop. One of the worktables had transformed into a bed, complete with pillows and sheets.

            As Sonic and Tails came in, Rotor was talking to Bunnie. "I don't know. Doing this just freaks me out sometimes. I mean, if I can convince myself it's just a robot's limb I can do it. But after working on you for all these years, I can't really work on your limbs without thinking they're you… it scares me sometimes."

            "Rotor, hon, I think you're doin' fine."

            "If I were near done," Rotor said glumly, "I'd appreciate that compliment more."

            "'Cause you'd know it was true?"

            "Something like that."

            Sonic looked towards Bunnie's corner as he entered. She was curled up beneath her blanket, her back to the wall. Her one leg propped up the blanket and kept most of Bunnie's body hidden from view. Only her eyes, ears, and part of her head were really visible.

            She smiled to Sonic and Tails. "Hi, y'all."

            Sonic saw how desperately she was trying to be cheerful. Even as she hid herself, she pretended that she was feeling fine.

            "Yo, Bunnie. Hey Rote, how's it comin'?"

            "Not much better," Rotor said. "My earlier estimate's the same."

            "Aunt Bunnie!" said Tails, jumping onto Bunnie's bed.

            "Woah, sugar-Tails," she said. "You're hoppin' like a spooked toad an' Ah can't catch ya well!"

            "Aunt Bunnie, we brought you a present!" he said.

            Bunnie smiled. "Ah guess you can't have enough flowers until they start comin' out yer ears!"

            "Nuh-uh, not that kind of present," he said. "Sonic, get it!"

            "Gotcha, big guy!" Sonic zipped out of the room and reappeared in a flash, holding something behind his back. He wore a smile.

            "You like surprises, Bunnie?"

            "C'mon, sugar-hog, just give it up!"

            "I think she does like surprises," said Tails to Sonic. "Otherwise she wouldn't be going so crazy to see it."

            "I think you nailed it, lil' bro."

            "If you two aren't gonna show me nothin', Ah say you need to leave!"

            "She's threatening us, Sonic!"

            "I'm shakin', Tails!"

            "Guys," said Rotor, "just show her."

            "Spoilsport!" said Sonic. "Hey, Bunnie, nothin's wrong with your paws—catch!"

            Bunnie caught the object Sonic threw at her—and only then realized what it actually was.

            "A Swatbot leg?"

            "Of course!" said Rotor. "The components of a Swatbot's leg—the actuators and servomotors—are of very similar design as the ones in the Roboticised leg of a Mobian. After all, the Roboticiser and the Swatbot designs are of the same technological generation: both were designed near the end of the Great War. And it only makes sense that the legs of a robot would mimic the natural motions of the organic muscles in our bodies."

            "Rotor, honey, what-all does that mean?"

            "It means that you're holding most of the components I can use to rebuild your leg."

            "Well don't just stand there!" she said, tossing the leg to Rotor. "Get to work!"

            "Yes, ma'am!"

            Bunnie pulled Tails to her. "Come here, you! Where'd you get that?"

            "Sonic and I went to Robotropolis. There was a Swatbot standing around, so we mugged him!"

            "Tails took it down, then we snatched its leg and high-tailed it outta there," Sonic said.

            The truth, of course, was far less glamorous—they'd just found a Swatbot corpse lying derelict in the junk heaps. They took its leg and left, and on the way home they'd come up with the story.

            "Oh, Tails, hold still!" She planted a kiss on his cheek. "Goin' to Robotropolis just for me… good for you! Sugar hog, you come here, too!"

            "I'll have to pass on the kiss, Bunnie," he said.

            "Fine then, Ah'll give your kiss to Rotor. Rotor, hon, you come here instead!"

            "Umm… you told me to work on the leg!" said Rotor hastily.

            "Ah guess Ah did. C'mere anyway!"

            Sonic excused himself from the room. He was joined in a second by Tails. When Sonic looked at him, though, he was still blushing from Bunnie's kiss.

            Sonic wondered about it for a few moments. "Tails?"

            "Sonic… I feel weird."

            "About what?" Sonic asked, not entirely sure he wanted to hear the answer. If Tails was attaching any meaning to the kiss beyond Bunnie's gratitude, it meant he was growing up far faster than Sonic was comfortable with.

            "Why didn't you accept Bunnie's kiss?"

            Sonic relaxed. "Bunnie's all right, I just didn't want her to kiss me, that's all. It's my choice, anyway."

            "Then why should I always accept her kisses?"

            Skewer. Sonic was thrown for a mental loop. Tails was getting way too good at this. "'Cause it'll make her feel better."

            "But kissing you doesn't make her feel better?"

            "Not in the same way." Tails was driving hard. At what?

            "So there's a difference between her kissing you and her kissing me?"

            "Course there is."

            "Why?"

            "Well, for one thing, there's…" Sonic trailed off.

            "Sally?" Tails finished.

            "Yeah," said Sonic, who quickly followed, "But there's more than that."

            "Like what?"

            "Tails, cool as you are, ya gotta remember you're still ten. It's easier for everyone to think you're still a kit. We don't want you to grow up too fast."

            "But I thought that making me a Freedom Fighter meant I needed to grow up. If I'm a real Freedom Fighter, shouldn't I be treated like one?"

            "Yeah, but we don't wanna admit it. It makes it harder for everyone. You're still ten," Sonic repeated, uncomfortable. "And you still call her Aunt Bunnie, right?"

            Sonic had scored a point at last. Tails fell silent, pondering. And Sonic was left to wonder if he really meant what he'd said.

            Sally had called Sonic and Tails into her hut. She'd needed some help planning this next mission.

            Sonic was always lame when he tried to plan these things ahead. He usually just didn't understand how much time and effort something might take. In Sally's experience, he also struggled with the concept of going somewhere in order to go somewhere else; each layer she abstracted a plan, the harder it got for him. He just couldn't keep his focus on it long enough.

            He had no problems in the execution of such plans, and if a problem could be solved in one or two steps he could be downright brilliant at times, but he couldn't plan ahead. He'd come, however, because he'd been with Tails when Sally'd called him. Sally had only tried this a few times with Tails and was unsure of how well he'd do.

            Now, an hour later, all the planning was complete—but Sally was dismayed. Tails didn't have Sonic's problem—he had a different one.

            "Alright, then do you two understand what you're going to do?"

            "No problem, Sal!"

            "Got it, Aunt Sally."

            "Good. Be sure to get whatever sleep you need to be ready tonight." And get out of here so I can think clearly without being mean to you.

            They got her hint. "See ya tonight!" said Sonic as he left, Tails in tow.

            Sally slumped back. Tails' flaw was predictable. He had a gross overestimation of what Sonic was capable of.

            But there was a more worrying flaw. He also grossly overestimated the number of Swatbots and their effectiveness at stopping "ordinary"—non-Sonic—Freedom Fighters. This turned all of his plans into giant games of the lone hedgehog versus entire armies of lethal Swatbots. Dramatic, yes, but utterly useless as far as Sally was concerned. Those dramas didn't help Sally with any part of the planning because they were so far removed from reality.

            Perhaps, thought Sally… perhaps Tails is more frightened than I expected. His patterns suggest that he's deathly afraid of Swatbots.

            Well, so were we… we still are. But we know that we can take down a few if we have to, and we can do it quietly and quickly. Even as we train Tails how to do it, he loses his confidence to do it.

            For that matter… "Nicole, is this plan more cautious than previous plans?"

            "Define the parameters of cautious, please."

            Of course. You can't go to a computer for a value judgment. Nicole knew what caution was, as a word, but struggled to understand how much holding back constituted caution.

            "Forget it, Nicole. Display some previous plans of mine… the past few before Bunnie was hurt."

            She nodded as she watched them. She'd been getting more cautious, yes, that was definite. All of her operations had, with the exception of the strike at the mainframe. Yet even that had required almost a week to set up and execute and included two diversions and four teams of Freedom Fighters. She hadn't taken many chances there, either.

            She paused for a moment. Had she really been overly cautious? After all, Bunnie had gotten shot; putting her in a position to get shot hadn't seemed particularly cautious. But when she reviewed what Bunnie would have done on that mission, it occurred to her that Bunnie's presence itself was unneeded. As Sonic and Sally had proved, the mission didn't need Bunnie to be there at all. She'd been there to make things easier, and had just gotten unlucky. Bad luck was a risk all of the Freedom Fighters ran; there was no way to avoid the risk, short of not going to Robotropolis. She was never going to concede to that risk.

            Now that she could see the pattern, she chastised herself. What was the point of blowing up those Stealth Bots, anyway? Stealth Bots rarely did anything significant these days. Did she hit them just because they were convenient?

            There! That was when she'd started getting cautious. She checked the date. Of course. The day she'd started training Tails. Just as he was scared of Swatbots, she was scared of him encountering Swatbots. Even though his first mission had only been recent, Sally's thinking had changed before then.

            I can't ask Nicole's judgment for this question, either. It was too complex. Obviously everyone had lost confidence. She had, Tails had, the entire village of Knothole had. Failed missions were nothing new, but rarely did the Freedom Fighters fail two in a row, and two on consecutive days was very bad indeed.

            Although crashing the mainframe had given a brief surge of confidence, it was apparent to her now that there was an underlying uncertainty. The very anxiety that had caused her to recruit Tails in the first place was manifest in these plans before her. Anxiety was contagious. It had started with her, at the top; it had spread through all of Knothole by now.

            The problem wasn't that I was pushing too hard. I wasn't pushing hard enough!

            Strangely, Sally felt better. Now that she could see the problem, she could fix it. Well, then, how to restore everyone's confidence? Some short, safe raids? A raid and a break? A festival of some kind? An inspirational speech? (Sally laughed at the last one; as if she could give an inspirational speech!)

            Or was it…?

            Sally dug out another plan. Yes. That was it.

            What better way to restore confidence than to do the impossible?

            Sonic knocked on Sally's door. "Come in," she said.

            Sonic opened it and saw that she was lying on top of her bed. "My bad, Sal, I'll get outta here."

            "No, come in, Sonic. I wasn't asleep."

            "Then why the bed?"

            "I just needed a rest, that's all."

            "So what's up?"

            "What do you mean, Sonic?"

            "You know what I mean. Everyone's talkin' about it. You canceled tonight's raid! Why'dja do that? Two bad missions, we can't give up after that! We gotta get a good one in!"

            "I know. That's why I canceled tonight's raid. I came up with a better plan. I want everyone to be really rested for this one."

            "Must be a doozy," said Sonic, wary.

            Sally got up from her bed and flashed him a predator's smile. "I'll show you," she said.

            Tails cautiously knocked on the door of the workshop. "Come on in!" shouted Rotor.

            Bunnie was no longer lying on her table; she was as close to the project as she could manage. She'd slid down the table almost to the point that she was in range to grab the leg and reconnect it. 

            "Bunnie, you're in my light again."

            "Sorry, sugar, Ah'm just all ready to see mah leg on again."

            "And I told you it'll be more than a week. I can't work that fast! Especially if someone won't get out of my light!"

            Bunnie finally backed off some—a meter, no more. A last she noticed Tails. "Oh, hi darlin'. What're you here for?"

            "I wanted to talk to you," said Tails.

            "Well, Ah can see you're unsure 'bout somethin'. C'mon, sit up here with me."

            "That's just it," said Tails. "I… I'm not sure if I wanna be a kit anymore."

            "That's nonsense," said Bunnie firmly.

            Fury built up within Tails. "Aren't you even going to listen to me?"

            "Of course, sugar. But Ah think Ah know what you're gonna say."

            Tails took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure. "You see… well… I'm a Freedom Fighter, right? A real one. It feels weird to still call everyone 'Aunt', and it's weird to be a kit."

            "Peer pressure?" wondered Rotor.

            "Nah, noone his age," responded Bunnie.

            "You don't have to be someone's age to be his peer," Rotor pointed out, "which I think is what Tails is trying to get at."

            "Yes!" said Tails, relieved. "I mean, you don't go around kissing Sonic or Rosie, do you Bunnie? But you kiss me."

            Now Rotor laughed. "Tails, getting kissed by Bunnie isn't something you're gonna get sympathy for. Jealousy, maybe, but not sympathy."

            "That was nice!" said Bunnie.

            "It's like you said earlier," said Tails, "if I'm a Freedom Fighter, it must mean I'm not a kit anymore. So I… I don't think I wanna be treated like one anymore."

            "Tails, honey, Ah knew you were gonna say that, an' you know what? Sometimes, it don't matter what you want. You are a kit, like it or not."

            "But that doesn't mean I have to be treated like one. I'm a Freedom Fighter, too."

            "Sugar, you can be a Freedom Fighter an' a kit at the same time. Nothin' wrong with that. Bein' a Freedom Fighter'll make you old, but you don't have to be old to be a Freedom Fighter."

            Tails shook his head, bewildered. "But… but… all this time, Sally and Sonic and everyone always said I'd be a Freedom Fighter when I was older!"

            "We said that so you'd be old before you were one," said Rotor. "We didn't want you to be a young Freedom Fighter, but that didn't mean you couldn't be one, like you are now."

            "An anyways," said Bunnie, "Ah wanna keep treatin' you like you are. You're a kit, an' Ah wanna keep you as one."

            "Why?" said Tails, a bite in his voice. "Is it like Sonic said, so it's easier for you to imagine me not being a Freedom Fighter? So it's easier on you?"

            "'Cause I don't want you to grow up too fast. You're gonna be an adult a long time, but you're only a kit a few years. It'd be easier on you if y'all weren't a Freedom Fighter. But you are, an' like Ah said, that makes you old quick. No need to rush things, sugar."

            Tails walked to the worktable. He hopped up and sat next to Bunnie. She planted a peck on his cheek.

            That wasn't so bad, he thought.

            I can live with that.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	7. Set Up

            Snively shook his head again. Anything he could do to stay awake, he was doing. He'd been constantly working for almost the whole of the time since the mainframe went down. This was yet another way that losing the mainframe was hateful.

            Snively had a list of such reasons going in his mind. Every hour, the list expanded, encompassing yet more disgusting aspects of the situation.

            Currently, most of these aspects had to do with Robotnik's physiology. The two of them had spent four days together in the one hover unit, neither of them bathing, changing clothes, or sleeping. Dull as Snively's senses were compared to an animal's, a robot could smell Robotnik's body odor.

            Sadly, Snively was losing some of his restraint. His patience with Robotnik was wearing out, and that boded ill for him. If he was on edge, Robotnik was surely psychotic.

            Maybe his blood pressure will spike and he'll have an aneurysm, Snively thought. I'm probably not that lucky.

            As soon as he thought it, he shuddered. Much as he hated Robotnik, he couldn't really see what life without him would be like. Whenever he thought about it, he could only imagine an abyss.

            He didn't think about it much anymore.

            Robotnik shifted in his seat and another waft of odor hit Snively's nose. Snively shook his nose yet another time, this time for a different reason. The smell was intolerable! If Snively didn't get some form of release soon…

            "Sir?"

            "What?" said Robotnik, as if snapping out of a trance.

            "Sir, we're reaching the limits of what caffeine can do. We've got to get some sleep at some point or…"

            "No!" shouted Robotnik. "We are the only things that keep this city running! If we sleep, we'll never get the mainframe back online!"

            "But sir," said Snively, too tired to care about the consequences of arguing, "We're reaching the point of diminishing returns. If we stay awake much longer, we'd almost be more productive asleep!"

            Robotnik grimaced and growled, and Snively braced himself for the inevitable repercussions. Amazingly, Robotnik started to relax. His grip on his chair eased just a little. "How many commands can the Swatbots queue up?"

            You want to tell them to do as much as possible while we sleep, Snively thought. He was a bit miffed that Robotnik would care about efficiency, which was Snively's job; as Snively thought of things, and how he justified the partnership to himself, Robotnik was the creative mind, the controller and imaginer; Snively was the happy worker carrying out orders and making sure everything went smoothly.

            Getting maximum efficiency out of the bots was something Snively considered to be his job, not Robotnik's, but given how happy he was to be getting out of that hover unit he was more than happy to play along. "Quite a few, sir, it depends on the complexity of the commands."

            "Very well, Snively. We will give as many orders as possible to each group of Swatbots and worker bots. Once all the bots have things to do while we're asleep, we return to Headquarters."

            Snively was relieved for a moment. Robotnik had listened to reason—who could've expected that? Then he suddenly had a thought—how long would it take to contact every single squad of Swatbots? Hours, maybe. What if one of those squads was then done with its jobs? Robotnik would insist they give them something to do. Then others would get done, and get new series of orders, then others…

            Robotnik didn't want them to go to sleep, not in the least. The conditions under which they'd get to sleep were set up for the purpose of denying them that sleep until the mainframe was restored and could take over administration. 

            Snively moaned mentally and reached for his coffee.

            Sally sat at a table near the outside of Knothole. She was outdoors; the breeze was pleasant, though it might grow chilly if the night was a cold one.

            Occasionally Sally regretted the cover of the trees. From what she could tell, a glorious sunset was burning across the sky. It was an outside possibility that she could manage to see the tail-end of it yet, but she doubted it. Another wasted opportunity. Well, she thought, if this works, I'll ensure there are at least a few more for me to see in the future.

            Antoine caught her eye as he approached. "I am being ze reporter for you, my preencess," he said.

            "Good, Antoine. Now we wait for Sonic and Tails."

            "Tails? My preencess, he is…"

            "Antoine, I'll explain later. I'll show you what the two of you will do."

            "Ze two of us?"

            "Antoine, wait for a moment." And it turned out to be just a moment; mere seconds later, Sonic and Tails appeared on the table, bowing.

            "Weee're here!"

            "Yep!" confirmed Tails.

            Sally nodded. "Only a few minutes late."

            "What? Me? Late? I'm the fastest thing alive."

            "The fastest thing with a lazy streak, you mean."

            "I not could be more in agreeing with you, preencess. This fyuel…"

            "Antoine, we'll discuss that later," Sally interrupted.

            "Sacre bleu! Every things is later!"

            "Nicole, display the hologram of the plan." Sally wanted to keep them focused. She wanted them relaxed, which was why she'd joked with them, but now it was time to settle down. The computer displayed the image, buzzing contentedly.

            "Antoine, Tails, this is the route you will take," she said. "Follow these checkpoints. Antoine, you know where they are, so Tails will follow you." She looked him in the eye. "Can you remember it all?"

            "Of certainment!"

            "Right. Tails, your ultimate destination is this building. Actually, the roof of this building. This plan has some tight timing. There are two options here. Some of these factories have skylights, some don't. We can't be sure which."

            To help with the explanation, Nicole displayed the roof of the building in two forms—once with a skylight, once without.

            "We've used skylights in the past, so it may be guarded. In either case, your goal is to punch a hole in the roof."

            Tails stared at her. "Aunt Sally… how?"

            "If there's a skylight, you can find a way to knock it out. We'll supply you with the tools you'll need, so you can do so even if there's no skylight."

            "What about Swatbots?"

            "You'll handle them," she said. "I wish there were a better way to put this, but you're gonna have to find a way to deal with them. There shouldn't be many. Use Antoine if you can find a way to get him there. It's all up to you. We're counting on you to improvise."

            Tails was shaking. "You can do this, Tails," she said. "I know you can. That's why I'm trusting it to you. Sonic and I will handle the rest of the plan, and Antoine will get you to the roof. All you need to do is handle that one part on the roof. It's the key to the plan, and I know you can do it."

            "Yeah," said Sonic. "Big guy, you can handle it. It's just a roof! A few feet of wood and metal! It can't stop you, just walk all over it."

            Tails smiled a little. "Yes," said Antoine, "zere is much of ze knowing of ze abilities of you. Ze preencess is much in her correctness to do being giving this to you."

            Just what I needed, Sally thought, Antoine's approval of my plan. But it seemed to help Tails; the kit stopped shaking as Antoine patted him on the shoulder. Sonic caught her eye and tossed a big sneer in Antoine's direction, followed by a questioning look. Sally mouthed 'later' back to him.

            "Alright, everyone, let's go. Antoine, Tails, you'll ride Dulcy. Sonic and I will head out first."

            "Hey, Tails! You get to travel Air Dulcy."

            "Cool! I've never ridden her before!"

            "Just watch that last step."

            "Huh?"

            "You'll see."

            "Here," said Sally, handing out watches. "These are all perfectly synchronized. They'll vibrate when there's fifteen minutes before we need the hole, one minute left before the plan goes into effect, and again at the critical time. Tails, at the third vibration, we need there to be a hole in that ceiling. You'll probably want to wait as long as possible before you put the hole in, but when you feel the second buzz, you'll need to hurry."

            Tails nodded. "I gotcha."

            "As soon as the hole's in place, get out of there! Every Swatbot in Robotropolis will notice our part of the plan, so get out of the city as soon as you're done. Everyone understand? Let's do it to it," she said. Antoine and Tails started walking towards Dulcy's meadow. Sally watched them for a few moments, then turned to Sonic. "Ready?"

            He nodded. "Got my Power Ring and everything." He stared at her for a few moments. "Well? You gonna answer my question?"

            "About Antoine?"

            "That one."

            "Sonic, can you name an animal that can hide better than Antoine?"

            "Anyone! When he flips out, anything can hear him!"

            "How often does he "flip out"?" she said firmly.

            "About… once a month," said Sonic. He crossed his arms in front of him and waited.

            In the time they'd known each other, Sonic and Sally had slowly developed a body language unique to them. Sally understood Sonic's gesture now to be an admission of sorts—he knew she had a point, but he was going to make her work for it and prove to him what it was.

            She was perfectly willing to do this. "So, anytime that Antoine doesn't shake, he can hide the best."

            "It comes naturally to him," said Sonic.

            "In that case, he's the perfect animal for the job, since we need a way to get Tails safely to his destination, then home again. We can't do it, since we'll be elsewhere at the time. By sending him with Antoine, we give Tails the best chance of survival."

            "But what if the Swatbots run into them? Ant's no good at that, an' you know it."

            "Yes, I know it. But it's a risk we can't get around. Can you recommend someone else for the job?"

            "No," he said, "but I can recommend we don't set it up like this."

            Sally frowned, signaling disapproval. "Sonic, we can't get so risk-averse that we're paralyzed. Yes, it's a gamble. But I have faith in Tails. When did you start doubting him?"

            Sonic turned his head. This was a surprise, thought Sally; that was Sonic's way of expressing embarrassment. "It was easier to get pumped over Tails when I knew he wouldn't be a Freedom Fighter."

            Sally could only shake her head in amazement. "So all of your promotion of Tails' being a Freedom Fighter was based on the assumption that he'd never be one? All this time you never actually wanted him to get involved?"

            He grimaced. "Hey, I was sure we could nail Robuttnik before we ever had to use Tails. I blame you, Sal. I never thought you'd cave an' let him be a Freedom Fighter. But y'know, since I said so often I wanted him to be a Freedom Fighter…"

            "The lie took on a life of its own."

            "Somethin' like that. I just wanted him to be happy." Sonic stared in the direction Tails had gone in. "I love him. I didn't think he'd end up doin' the thing I never wanted him to do."

            "That'll teach you to watch your tongue."

            "Yeah, no kiddin'."

            "Any other lies you'd like to confess? Or shall we go?"

            Sonic shook his head. "You're bein' real sweet, Sal."

            She walked up to him. "Hey, you kept repeating to me how you wanted him to be a Freedom Fighter."

            "'Cause I knew you'd never let him be!"

            "Sonic, do you know how much your opinion matters to me?"

            The hedgehog and the princess were silent for several long moments. Then both blushed and turned away. Eventually Sally sighed in finality and turned back to Sonic.

            "C'mon, let's go."

            "Gotcha, Sal. Hop to it, I'm ready to juice!"

            She jumped into that familiar posture, linking her arms around his neck as he supported her back and knees. "Robotropolis, here we come!" Sonic shouted. A moment later, the only evidence they'd ever been there was flying leaves.

            Tails followed Antoine, trying to clear his head. So THAT was what Sonic had meant. "Watch that last step" had turned out to mean "Don't be on Dulcy when she lands". The only landing Dulcy knew was the crash landing.

            He looked up and saw Antoine continuing through the murk. Tails hurried to catch up. Despite his boots, Antoine was moving through the city making almost no noise. Tails still had a lot to learn if he was being outclassed by Antoine.

            Following Antoine was like following a train. There was a lot of starting and stopping, and for the animal in back, the stops were sudden and the starts more so. Every few minutes, Antoine would stop and shiver once or twice. Each time, he looked back at Tails, then said something defiant and hurried off again, forcing Tails to run to catch up.

            "This is annoying," Tails thought. "Why is he acting like this?"

            He caught a strange smell. He looked at Antoine—was it coming from him? Tails had some doubts, as he was in Robotropolis and everything stank. But this smell was almost like… sweat.

            It was sweat, Tails thought. Antoine was sweating profusely, through seemingly every part of his body. It was as if Antoine was a sponge, and someone was wringing the sweat out of him.

            Tails came to the inevitable conclusion: however frightened Tails was, Antoine was scared out of his mind, and only by looking back at Tails and refusing to let him down was Antoine able to continue going on.

            Tails felt momentary panic. Was Antoine thinking clearly enough to lead him in the right direction? Tails was lost, for certain; he had no idea which way he was going, nor which way would get him out of the city. If Antoine was lost, Tails was, too. But somehow Antoine seemed to know where he was going, panicked though he was.

            He stopped again as they walked parallel to some pipes. Tails stopped, waiting for the shiver, but it never came. Antoine pressed a paw against the pipes, then dropped to the ground and rolled beneath the pipes. Tails hesitated, then followed.

            Antoine stayed there, shivering, and Tails felt panic again. Had Antoine totally fallen apart? If one was to believe Sonic, this happened often.

            Why, oh why, did Sally team me with Antoine? Now we're doomed!

            A sound a moment later convinced Tails that they really were doomed.

            Clank, clank, clank.

            The unmistakable sound of Swatbots on the march.

            Every muscle group in Tails' body seized up, causing him to shiver like Antoine. The footsteps were almost constant and intolerably loud. It was a whole troop of them! The sound came from every direction at once, so it was impossible to know where they were going, and from where; all Tails knew was that the sound was getting louder, so the bots must be getting closer.

            Now he could see Swatbot feet! They were passing so close by Tails instinctively wrapped his tails around his body to get them out of the way. The sound was shattering Tails' ears.

            And then it was over. Within seconds the Swatbots were gone, and many long seconds later the footsteps became inaudible.

            Antoine scrambled out from beneath the pipes, brushing gunk off of his uniform and muttering. Tails followed him and wondered how he could possibly be concerned with his appearance at a time like this. Then he looked closer and saw how much Antoine's paws shook as he cleaned himself.

            Antoine looked up at Tails. "I tink I know why my preencess put you and me into teammates," he said.

            "Why?"

            Antoine made an expression very unusual for him, one that most had never seen. It was a bitter smile, but almost guilty in its bitterness. "It is taking ze coward to know hiding better, no?"

            Tails knew how everyone thought of Antoine. How could he have been so thick as to expect Antoine to not know the same? All this time, everyone thought that Antoine was too arrogant to understand his flaws. 

            The reason he had to try and be brave was because he knew he was a coward.

            "I think you're very brave, Antoine." He remembered something Sonic had told him. He'd said that even Antoine was brave, because he knew all the dangers and was a Freedom Fighter anyway. "Sonic thinks you're brave, too," he said on inspiration.

            Antoine gasped something unintelligible, then bowed his head to Tails. "Tanks to you," he said. "Now, we are going?"

            "Yeah," said Tails. "Antoine, why didn't they find us?"

            He smiled. "Be touching ze pipeses," he said.

            Tails did—for just a moment; they were scalding hot. "Oh! I think I get it."

            "Ho-ho," said Antoine. "Those Swatbottoms were tinking of finding us. But I was clevair! If they see us only by being heated, then heated is where to hide!"

            Naturally. Swatbot infrared sensors would be all but blinded by the heat of the pipes. What was the heat of two animals compared to that?

            "Good job, Antoine!" said Tails.

            "Now alongsides coming," he said. "We are not wanting to be late for ze end! I will see zis conclusivity with my own two feet!"

            Tails smiled. What would be the point of correcting him?

TO BE CONTINUED…


	8. Markout

            "Going on up," said Sonic.

            "Right." She put a foot onto his hands. "Okay, Sonic. One, two, three!"  
            Sonic wasn't the strongest animal on Mobius, but he could handle this. He helped boost Sally up into the vent.

            He watched as she clambered up—watched until the dust fell onto him.

            He heard Sally hacking and coughing. "Robotnik needs to clean these more often!" she said. "Really unsanitary!"

            "Yeah," said Sonic, trying to wipe his eyes clean, "I'm sure he wants his bots all squeaky clean."

            "Alright, I'm ready," she said. She'd turned around and was extending a paw to help Sonic into the vent himself.

            "One, two, three, four!"

            He came very close to hauling Sally out of the vent, but she caught herself and helped him up. "There are so many things I should do to you right now," she said.

            "Like what?"

            Sally was going to say something, but couldn't manage it. "Like… li… choo!"

            She sneezed all over Sonic at close range.

            "Uh, Sal, dis-gus-ting! How royal!"

            "Call it payback," she said. "Besides, I couldn't help it."

            "You could've turned your head!"

            "Oh, yeah. Oh well." She turned and started crawling through the vent. It was very small, barely enough for an animal, so she had to go on forearms and thighs.

            Sonic smiled as he followed. He was going to get in big trouble for this one. Oh, well, what could she do? "Nice view," he said with an audible smirk.

            Her head whipped around to stare at him. He just kept on smirking.

            She planted a boot in his face. "Ow!"

            "'Nice view', you have some nerve, Sonic Hedgehog!"

            "Isn't it a compliment?"

            She started shifting. Sonic realized too late what she was doing. "Hold on, Sal, I'm not sure…"

            "Oh, I'm very sure." She pushed Sonic's head down right into the dust of the vent and started moving over him.

            In light of what he'd said, one would think that Sonic might've enjoyed that, but he found nothing sensual in getting pressed into the metal of the vent. The close proximity to Sally did nothing for him.

            As she got off of him, he heard her say, "Okay, Sonic, YOU get to lead!"

            "This is not cool," he said.

            "Oh, I agree. The view from here is terrible."

            Sonic sighed. It was going to be a long crawl.

            It WAS a long crawl.

            Having to stare at Sonic's butt the whole time hadn't been quite as bad as Sally'd imagined, but it still wasn't pleasant. And she'd sneezed about a dozen times over the course of the journey.

            Now, though, the payoff was at hand.

            "There," she said. "That vent ahead.

            "Just how far down do we gotta go?"

            "It's about fifteen meters."

            "Not cool. How're we gonna manage that?"

            "I brought rope," said Sally. She stopped moving forward and brought her backpack around to her front. "We just open the vent, put a piton in the duct, drop the rope, and slide down."

            "Oh yeah? Isn't everyone and their mother gonna hear us put the piton in?"

            "A problem, yes, but it shouldn't be too much."

            "And if they see the rope?"

            "We won't spend that much time exposed. We'll gamble."

            "Sal, you are scarin' this hedgehog."

            "How so?"

            "Every part of this plan is based on bets!"

            "Not a gambling person, Sonic?"

            "It just doesn't make sense, comin' from you. I mean, whatever happened to "We have to keep the Freedom Fighters together"? Whatever happened to "safety first"?"

            "A game of Markers."

            "Huh?"

            "We've got to take some chances, Sonic, or we'll never make any headway. This is a big risk, yes, but it's got an enormous payoff. Okay, ready?"

            "I guess so. Let's do it to it, Sal."

            Glad to hear it, Sonic. I was beginning to think you weren't going to help out. And I need your confidence to bolster my own.

            Seconds later, she dropped the rope. Sonic was already holding part of it. As the rope went down, so did he. Sally slipped on a pair of gloves she'd stolen from Sonic one time and followed him immediately.

            Ow! The rope burned her thighs. She was sliding down as quickly as possible, and it was tearing her legs apart. Her paws were doing slightly better, by virtue of the gloves.

            "Hey, I got a cool view again!" said Sonic from beneath her.

            Sally all but let go of the rope and came close to her goal of smashing into Sonic. In no time, both were on the ground.

            "Hold on, Sal!" he said. She grabbed his shoulders and he took off, dodging Swatbots and trying to get to their destination: the freighter.

            Robotnik waited impatiently for Snively to explain what was going on. "What is it?" he said.

            "Sir, it's hard to tell, the traffic is very confused… there's something about a freighter diverting from its course."

            "What freighter?"

            "One of the ones just in. It had just finished unloading its cargo of supplies and was en route to unload some oil at the refineries. But for some reason, sir, it's not going to the refineries."

            "'Some reason'? Idiot! There's only one reason! Get me over there, along with three squads of Swatbots! NOW!"

            Robotnik's heartbeat skyrocketed. His mind raced with all the destructive things the Freedom Fighter could do with an entire freighter.

            "Identify that freighter! Stand by to target it as a hostile!"

            "Yes, sir."

            "Where is it headed, sir?"

            "It's hard to tell, sir. Along these lines," he said, pointing to the map display.

            Robotnik tried to see what vital things might be along that line—and his pacemaker froze. "Snively! I want all Swatbots to inspect the area around factory 34!"

            "Yes, sir."

            Robotnik banged his fists against the seat, panicked. Oh no, oh no, oh no! He had to have news, any news—the anticipation, the fear, it was the worst!

            "Sir! The freighter is definitely headed for factory 34! And someone put a hole in the roof of that factory!"

            "A hole?" What was the freighter carrying? Robotnik tried to remember.

            Oh NO!

            "Shut down the factory! Shut it down! Cut all power to that factory!"

            "We can't be that specific, sir, we have to cut power to the entire sector!"  
            "Do it!"

            "Yes, sir, but why?"

            "All electricity must be off! Tell all Swatbots to shut down! Disarm all their weapons! We have to get all of that out now!"

            "Working, sir," said Snively. Robotnik could tell he was bewildered, but he was too caught up in panic to mind much.

            Robotnik took control of the piloting and moved directly for the factory at high speed. His worst fears were confirmed. There was the freighter, hovering over the factory.

            And it was dumping thousands of barrels of oil into the factory.

            "Now dumping the last twenty percent," said Nicole. Nicole was interfaced with the freighter's computer and monitoring all operations.

            "Good," said Sally. "This is the kind of disaster Robotnik inflicts all the time. We're finally giving him a little taste of it."

            "Yeah we are," said Sonic, "but check it out. Every hovercrate in Robotropolis is right on top of us."

            "Don't worry," said Sally. "They won't shoot at us until we're away from the factory. They can't afford to risk setting off all that oil.

            "Oh, great! So I only have to worry after that!"

            "Yes," said Sally, "This always was a weakness in the plan."

            "What?"

            "Well, it wouldn't be like Robotnik to not notice us doing this. So I always knew we'd end up surrounded by pretty much everything."

            "So the plan is…?"

            Sally hesitated for a moment. "Give me a minute."

            There was silence, except for the workings of the freighter.

            "WHAT?"

            Temptation manifested right in front of Robotnik's eyes.

            There were the pathetic princess and the horrid hedgehog, just standing there on the bridge of the freighter, practically begging to be shot!

            Yet Robotnik couldn't act. The oil unloaded by the freighter meant that the factory would be crisped instantly if ignited, and that would spark a fire Robotnik would have little ability to stop.

            Then again… wouldn't it be worth it?

            Robotnik's hands shook with violence. Yes… how much would he be willing to pay to decapitate the Freedom Fighters? What was the hedgehog's life worth? Oh, it would be sweet to see that blue body incinerated!

            But if it destroyed a large part of Robotropolis, Robotnik would lose his manufacturing base. He would be unable to support his peripheral operations. Most of his ability to control the planet would vanish, and his empire would crumble.

            Would it be worth it?

            Robotnik struggled to keep his hand from jamming down the firing controls on the panel.

            Just to see the hedgehog flail back, a hole in his chest?

            Just to see that princess' head cooked?

            Just to see them die, before his eyes?

            Was it worth it?

            "Sssss-nively!"

            "Yes, sir?"  
            "Get me out of sight of that hedgehog! Keep us close enough to give the Swatbots orders, but don't let me see them!"

            "Yes, sir," said Snively.

            Slowly, ever so slowly, Robotnik began to cool off.

            How could I let myself go so far? He wondered about it. If I'd slipped so badly in the past, I would never have gotten this far. I must keep control of myself! That hedgehog will not have this much power over me!

            With that thought of fury and defiance, he got his brain working again.

            Sonic and Sally looked back at each other, then back towards the control panel, then back at each other.

            "We did what we came to do," Sally said, "but now we're completely surrounded. Hover units are everywhere!"

            "Sal, we're not done yet! I ain't done kickin' Robuttnik's tail. You've gotta get us out of this!"

            "I'm working on it, Sonic," she said. She looked over the schematics. "I may have a plan," she said. "Are there Swatbots beneath us?"

            "I don't know," he said.

            "Nicole?"

            "Accessing freighter cameras. Negative."

            "Good. Here's what we do. We tell Nicole to put in a program to hold the hover freighter at two meters above the ground. We get out the way the oil came out."

            "Which way's that?"

            "Via these chutes in the bottom of the unit. We'll have to move fast; if Robotnik figures out what we're doing, he'll have some hover units at ground level. But if we move quickly, we'll get out of the freighter and use it to shield us. Then you pull out your Power Ring and we go home."

            "Since I've got nothin' better, it sounds like a plan."

            "Not exactly buying into it with enthusiasm, are we, Sonic?"

            "I've bought into better."

            Nicole beeped. "Warning. Hover units are attempting to dock with the freighter."

            "Last thing we need now is to tangle with Swatbots," said Sonic.

            "Agreed. Nicole, is the program ready?"

            "Affirmative. How much time to set?"

            Sally checked the schematic. "Fifteen seconds."

            "Timer set."

            "Begin!"

            She leapt into Sonic's arms, yanking Nicole out as she did. "Fifteen seconds to what?"

            "To emergency descent. Move it!"

            He did. They arrived at the fuel tanks with ten seconds to spare. Nicole opened the doors before them and they went straight into the tanks, which still had some residual oil on the floors.

            They slid some, which was bad—they needed every second.

            "Nicole, open the top part of the transfer tubes!"

            The system of transfer tubes in the freighter—the tubes that were used to dispense oil—had two locks. One was on the inside of the storage tanks, the other on the outside. This created a small area in which the Freedom Fighters could hide.

            "I can't breathe!" said Sonic.

            "Too much oil fumes," said Sally. "Come on! There!"

            Both could see a gap in the floor. They dashed towards it and stumbled. They landed one on top of the other in the gap. "Nicole, close outer door!"

            "Why?" said Sonic.

            The door closed, but even as it did, the ship gave a sudden lurch.

            "Emergency descent…" Sally began, but both Freedom Fighters were soon pressed against the top of the tube. Oil splattered into their fur, pressed against their bodies by velocity.

            "Disengages… the… engines!"

            "Smooth… move… Sal!"

            Well, now Sonic knew why she'd hurried them so much. If they'd been outside the tube when this had happened, they would've slammed against the ceiling of the much-bigger tank room.

            His thoughts were crushed out of him a moment later.

            With a second lurch, the freighter's descent slowed dramatically. Both animals slammed against the bottom of the tube.

            They didn't have time to cry out in pain. The breath was smashed out of their bodies.

            "Not now," Sally mouthed. Had Sonic been knocked unconscious? He wasn't moving!

            "Sonic," she tried to say, but could get no air into her lungs.

            Agonizingly, she reached for him. She unsnapped the backpack, though it took all of her effort. Centimeter by painful centimeter, she removed the Ring from his backpack.

            It began to glow the second it touched his skin.

            "Come on, hedgehog!" she said, this time audibly.

            The Ring slid over his shoulder, now down his upper arm, forearm, finally to his paw.

            "Wake up!"

            The Ring flashed, and Sonic gasped.

            His fingers curled around the Ring. Sally smiled. She'd succeeded.

            "Nicole?" she gasped.

            Without another word, the computer opened the lower hatch door, spilling the Freedom Fighters the last two meters to the ground.

            Once more, they were in pain and out of breath; but Sonic had his Ring, now, and he would not be denied.

            With effort, he got to his feet and picked up the now-spent Sally. But it was with no effort that he lifted the Ring high.

            The familiar energy raced through every cell in his body. Yes!

            "I am the hedgehog!" Sonic shouted. With that, he blasted off.

            Swatbots were incapable of anticipating, and Robotnik was just far enough away to not know immediately what was happening. These twin facts saved Sonic and Sally.

            The Swatbots couldn't know that Sonic was on the ground, and they couldn't expect what he would do. So they had no chance of catching him for the first few moments after he emerged from the freighter.

            A few seconds was all he needed.

            "Yaaaaaaah!"

            In those few seconds, he blew through the gauntlet. He passed the Swatbot corridor around the area. However, Robotnik had set up one final cordon of bots around the fringes of the area.

            Sonic saw them all too late. It was far too late, and he was moving far too quickly, to dodge effectively. Three Swatbots faced him down, blasters raised.

            Then a ball of tawny and orange was amongst them.

            Sonic thought he might cry.

            Tails took down the Swatbots, one by one, with precision and strength.

            Sonic slid to a stop. He was still holding Sally, who was now alert again, even if she still was struggling to breathe.

            "C'mon, you two. Ant, grab my shoulders. Tails, grab Ant. We're gettin' outta here!"

            "Sonic! Swatbots right!"

            It was a hoarse voice, but it was clear, and Sally's pointing finger left no doubt.

            Sonic issued a thought even before he turned to face the bots. The Power Ring began to dissolve in his hand. He had no time to spend on them! With a war cry he hurled the Ring into the lead Swatbot.

            Even as the Ring lost its coherency and became energy, it traveled the distance to the Swatbots. It struck like a cross between a cannon shell and a lightning bolt.

            But Sonic was no longer looking. The Ring had bought him all the time he needed. He was gone, long gone, before the next group of Swatbots arrived.

            When the Freedom Fighters arrived back at Knothole, they were totally wiped out. Exhausted. Tails and Antoine all but fell off of Dulcy. Sonic had slowed almost to a walk as he crossed the bridge into Knothole.

            But when the four of them entered the village and saw all the animals waiting for them, desperate to hear news about the raid, they couldn't help but cheer.

            And the cry of gratitude and exultance leapt from animal to animal, from the four successful Freedom Fighters to the crowd that waited for them.

            The citizens of Knothole welcomed home the Freedom Fighters. They brought them to the fireplace and waited for them to tell the stories. But something unusual happened. Instead of being hyped up by telling the stories, the Freedom Fighters nodded off.

            Tails was first. As Sally tried to tell about what they'd targeted, Tails laid himself down and fell asleep, slowly curling up into a ball, using his tails for blankets.

            Sonic and Sally were next, almost simultaneous. Sally had ended up handing the story over to Antoine. Sonic and Sally had leaned their heads into each other for support, but this simply made them fall asleep. They fell, as one, backwards to the ground, where they slept within millimeters of each other.

            Antoine was last. As he tried to recount some part of the story, he found himself unable to find the right word. Some seconds before then, he'd actually stopped speaking in Mobian Standard. Over five seconds, his head dropped to his chest and his eyes closed, but he kept on talking until finally falling onto his face.

            The Knothole citizens were stunned, unsure of what to do. There was some nervous laughter, but an uneasy murmur.

            "Alright, y'all, time to go to bed!" There were protests, but Bunnie drove everyone off to bed. And before she and Rotor returned to the workshop, they got blankets for every one of the Freedom Fighters.

            Even those covered in oil.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	9. Answer

            "Alright," said Sonic, "victory celebration, take two!"

            Laughter.

            Everything was good. Everything was funny.

            Tails was happy. His tails moved around almost as creatures of their own, betraying his excitement at all that had happened.

            It wasn't nighttime, and there was no campfire; instead it was noon, and the village of Knothole was relaxing beneath the trees.

            Sonic sat down next to Sally—though of course they took pains not to sit too close to one another. Tails was next to Sonic, Antoine next to Sally.

            Sally stood. "I'd like to explain just what we hit. Our target was one of Robotnik's biggest microchip plants. Everything Robotnik makes depends on those chips—they're in the hover units, the Swatbots, even the blasters. If we hit it, we take out a major portion of Robotnik's manufacturing ability.

            "So," she said, smiling, "we beat Robotnik at his own game of pollution. Tails opened a hole in the ceiling. Sonic and I took control of one of Robotnik's freighters and dumped a full load of oil into the plant."

            Her smile widened. "Funny thing about oil. It gets everywhere, it's hard to clean, and it makes everything grimy, especially before it's refined. Crude oil is some of the nastiest stuff on the planet.

            "Now, Robotnik's priceless microchip plant is totally flooded with oil. It's not destroyed, but it might as well be; it'll require a lot of work to clean up that mess. Plus all that oil was ruined, too—it wouldn't be worth it to try and clean it."

            Every animal present was smiling in satisfaction. Sally hadn't been aiming for exultation—a strong but temporary feeling. She'd wanted a subtle but deep-rooted satisfaction. And if the citizens' expressions were any guide, she'd succeeded.

            "Alright. Tails, Antoine, tell them how you did."

            Antoine stood. "Zo there we am, outnumerated, trying to get into ze impenetratable buildings. We hided—because we were scared? Oh nonononono, of course no. But because smashing ze Swatbots with bears' paws would be taking much too time. Instead, we brave-ely go to ze factory, where Tails would do his ting."

            Tails stood, somewhat sheepishly. "I have to thank Antoine," he said. "He got me there safe. Once there, it was all on me." He started to get into the description, leaning forward and locking eyes with villagers. "First thing we had to do was get past the perimeter. Robotnik has started guarding the abandoned buildings next to his factories because we use those so often to get in. We went in—and there was a Swatbot inside!"

            Tails was drawing the crowd in. They hung on his words. Sonic and Sally looked at each other—the kit was getting good at this.

            "Antoine distracted it… kinda, then I took it down!"

            In reality, Antoine had fallen while trying to sit down. This had drawn a Swatbot into the room. Luckily, Tails had been alert, and blindsided the bot as it came through the door. This time, his knife had driven true—the side seam had popped, the Swatbot's armor shell had split apart, and Tails had gutted it with silly ease.

            "I checked the security of the building. There was a LOT of Swatbots there! They were on the ground, there were hover units going around, and a few more Swatbots on the roof."

            He scanned the crowd. "Yes, the roof. Right where I needed to go."

            He paused for a while, letting the tension build. "A blaster would be way too loud, and I probably wouldn't be able to hit with one anyway. So I did the only thing I could do. I went for it. I got to the roof of my building to make it a short trip. I got a running start and flew to the other building at top speed!"

            "The first Swatbot saw me too late. It didn't have time to react before I was on top of it. Bam! Took him out instantly. No prob. The second Swatbot came to see what the noise was. I hid for a few seconds, then when it got close, I went for it. Took its knee joint out, then finished it off."

            He shook a paw. "I'm not gonna tell you how I opened the hole in the roof. Too boring. But it was tricky tryin' to get away, because Sonic and Sally had started the party, and they were getting close to me. So I had to high-tail it out of there."

            He scanned the crowd again. "It was even harder trying to get away, because all the Swatbots in the city were after Sonic and Sally, but they would've been satisfied with us. We had to be really careful. Well, it took us a while, but we were getting away. But there were three more bots in our way, and we couldn't find a way around them. We decided we'd have to go right for them.

            "Just as we decided this, the bots looked away, like they were tryin' to see something else. I knew this was our chance. Before they could look back at me, I went in and got 'em! Bam, one, bam, two, bam, three!

            "Then Sonic picked us up. That's what had distracted the Swatbots—they were lookin' for Sonic gettin' away, not for me, so I got 'em easy. Sonic came our way and pulled us outta there."

            Tails sat. "I got six by myself, and helped out Sonic and Sally. Quite a night!" he said. The crowd cheered Tails on.

            Sonic stood and said, "Well, Tails said I was on that mission, so I guess I was. Might as well tell what I remember…" The crowd laughed as much at the joke as at Sonic's scene stealing mannerism, but Tails was relieved, and it showed to the few who looked. As soon as the crowd was watching Sonic and not Tails, the kit hid himself and shook.

            Sonic and Sally watched the stream as it ran by beneath their feet. "That went well," said Sonic.

            "I'm surprised at myself," said Sally. "I never thought I'd be able to sleep last night."

            "Why?"

            "Because of all the gambles I took."

            He shrugged. "Gettin' smashed around'll make you sleepy anytime."

            "I guess. But, in a way, I didn't want to be able to sleep. Kind of as punishment for my own recklessness."

            "You were gonna punish yourself?"

            "In a way. I know how that last mission scared you, Sonic, but it scared me more. I knew you trusted me, but I didn't have that same trust in myself."

            "Oh, I feel great," said Sonic.

            "Huh?"

            "You're makin' me feel like some kinda chump! Like any time you don't have a plan I'll think it's still cool!"

            "Well, isn't that the case?"

            "Well… kinda…"

            "Sonic, knowing you trust me helps me trust myself. It's good to know that you'll be able to help me compensate for my mistakes."

            Sonic hmph'd. "I was tryin' to feel mad at you."

            "Didn't work?"

            "Nope."

            "I don't know whether to apologize or laugh."

            Sonic simply growled, causing Sally to laugh. Silence came again.

            "Rotor's feelin' up," said Sonic.

            "So I heard."

            "Says he may be able to get Bunnie back real soon."

            "So I heard."

            "You think maybe Rote says it'll take forever just to give himself a little time?"

            "He might."

            "Makes us think he's better."

            "Maybe he IS better."

            "True."  
            They were dancing around what they were trying to talk about. Sonic was willing to dance as long as Sally was; he was in no hurry.

            "So, who's going to talk to Tails?" said Sally.

            So much for that. "I will, Sal."

            "Do you know what to say?"

            "Yep."

            "Alright then." She turned to him. "Good luck."

            "Thanks." He turned and started walking towards the village.

            "Sonic!"

            "Yeah?"

            "Remember… it's his choice."

            He shook his head. "I couldn't forget that."

            "Hey Tails!"

            "Sonic! What's up?"

            "C'mon, let's go to the Power Ring pool."

            "But the Ring's not due for at least another hour."

            "Trust me, big guy. I need to talk to ya."

            "Oh, cool. Here I come!"

            Sonic paced Tails as they jogged to the pool. Even trying so hard, Tails just wasn't very fast, his sluggish body trying to keep pace with his hopes and ambitions. His appetite, large normally, was becoming positively ravenous with the large amounts of flying time he was logging. He was trying—oh, yes, he was trying.

            Sonic slowed as they reached the pool and walked around a bit to cool Tails off. Tails decided to discard his shoes and leap into the water instead.

            "C'mon, Sonic! The water's great!"

            "The water's always great." Which was true.

            "I know, but come in anyway!"

            "No thanks, big guy. I hate the stuff."

            Tails sighed helplessly, as if he was trying to get a kid to do something and failing. He turned on to his back and leisurely stroked around the pool.

            Go on ahead, big guy, Sonic thought. I'll wait. If you don't wanna come back today, I'd be happier. I don't wanna do this.

            He watched Tails frolic in the water for a while before the kit went to his back and floated. Motionless, just perfectly relaxing.

            The only sounds were the ambient ones—birds, the stream, the breeze. Sonic was reminded of the day after Bunnie went down. Yet there was a sharp contrast between the two days. That day, the quiet had been suffocating, the lack of motion bringing on only stiffness. Everything had seemed inert, dead, waiting for a breeze to blow it all away.

            Today, everything was simply… relaxed was the best word he could conjure up. The sounds were the same, the environment was the same, but the mood was profoundly different.

            Almost one of… satisfaction.

            That was it. He looked at Tails' face. The worry marks and wrinkles had totally eased out of it; there was just a hint of a smile on his face. He was at ease, without care, a kit enjoying his life.

            Sonic had just gotten used to this when Tails flipped backwards into the water and propelled himself over to Sonic. He slid out of the water like a seal and shook himself to get rid of some of the water.

            "Everyone needs to do that sometime!" Tails said.

            "I don't need to know how to swim."

            "Not that," Tails said, "just float out there an' relax. It's really great. All the… all the Freedom Fighters need to do it, at least. It helps me forget, just for a while."

            Sonic despaired. It was exactly that mentality that he'd been hoping Tails didn't have yet. He really was scared.

            It was just as Sonic had told him so recently—"To be a Freedom Fighter is to be afraid". Tails was a Freedom Fighter. He was afraid.

            Sonic struggled to find the words. "Lil' bro… Tails… um…"

            "Yeah, Sonic?" Tails stopped shaking and sat down facing Sonic. That doesn't make it easier on me, Tails, thought Sonic. Where are the words when I need them?

            "Well… Sal an' I, well, we were wonderin'… Do you…"

            "What?"  
            "Do you still wanna be a Freedom Fighter?"

            Tails was unfazed, as if he wasn't taking the question seriously. "You guys need me, right?"

            Sonic shook his head. "Maybe, maybe not. What I'm askin' has nothin' to do with us. Don't think about that. We can manage. Think about what you want, what's best for you, Tails."

            "What's best for me?" Tails looked away, into the distance.

            "You know what I'm talkin' about."

            Tails shivered. He did indeed.

            "What do you want? I won't lie to you. We could use your help. But we can get on without you. And we want this to be about what you want."

            Tails still didn't face Sonic. "Quitting? Now? Wouldn't that be… like sayin' Antoine's braver than me?"

            "No one'll hold that against ya, Tails. Maybe a villager or two, but no one who knows what it's really like. None of us. And I'll make sure no one else gives you lip," Sonic said, like a real big brother.

            Tails smiled weakly for a second. "We just want you to be happy, Tails. That's why we brought you in to begin with—we thought that you helpin' us would give you the best chance of bein' alive later on. Turns out, that may not be true. So we're askin' you to use your brain, Tails. Nah, more than your brain, your heart. Whaddya want?"

            Sonic could see the wheels turning in Tails head as the kit tried to make the decision. "What would you want me to do, Sonic?"

            "I'd want you to be happy, lil' bro. Pickin' somethin' that makes you miserable doesn't seem like a good choice to me."

            "Even if I leave," said Tails, "I'd still have the nightmares, wouldn't I?"

            "Maybe. I don't know, Tails, I haven't tried it. But you wouldn't get new ones, exactly."

            Tails nodded. "But knowin' how scary it is now… I don't know if I'd feel right leavin' you. I mean, it helps you out to know I know, doesn't it?"

            "Would that change?"

            "I wouldn't feel right not feelin' scared too if you guys were."

            "It's about you, after all. But know that that doesn't help us much. Like I said, though, it's about you."

            Tails was still unsure. "We may need you after all, Tails. We think we don't, but we might." Trying to argue both sides, thought Sonic.

            Tails looked up. "If… I… if I were… to leave… could I come back later?"

            "If you were needed?"

            Tails nodded.

            "No prob. It's not like we're gettin' rid of you if you say you want out. We know you're good. It's up to you when an' if you help."

            Tails looked into Sonic's eyes. "What would you do?"

            "If it was me?"

            "Yeah."

            Sonic looked away. He thought for several hard seconds on it. "All I know is we started way too early. We started when we were ten, and it was too early. If it was up to me, if I could do that again, I'd start us later. We weren't ready. But that was me."

            Tails hugged Sonic. "I don't wanna be a Freedom Fighter anymore," he said, holding Sonic tight.

            Sonic didn't dare say this, but it was what he'd hoped for. "Don't worry, big guy. I'll train you more, so when you're ready you're ready."

            Tails gave a final shiver. "Thank you, Sonic."

            "No prob." They stayed like that for several seconds. "Uh, Tails?"

            "What, Sonic?"

            "You're freezin' cold!"

            The water still on Tails' fur was drying slowly, and now it was spread all over Sonic.

            Tails grinned slyly and jumped into the water, splashing more of the cold water onto Sonic. Sonic leapt back, yelping.

            "Come on, Sonic, what, are you scared or somethin'?"

            "I don't like the water!"

            "Come on, you big kit, get over here!"

FIN

Bryon Nightshade

Disclaimer: 

I own none of the characters or situations in this story; SEGA, Archie Comics, and Dic own everything singly or collectively. This story, on the other hand, is mine, mine, mine, and bound by all applicable laws.


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